Deadly Maize Disease Threatens Food Supplies in Kenya
August 28, 2012
A farmer gathers arid corn crops on his farm in Kwale, Kenya, January 27, 2009.
This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
Officials in Kenya are attempting to deal with a deadly disease attacking maize crops. Some Kenyan farmers say the disease has reduced crop production by as much as sixty percent.
Last September, farmers in Bomet reported that a disease was destroying their maize or corn. The disease is called “maize lethal necrosis.” It makes the plant turn yellow and dry up. By January, researchers found that the disease was spreading across the country’s south and into central and eastern Kenya.
Paul Omanga is a crop production officer with the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. He says a study in July found that maize lethal necrosis had affected more than sixty-four thousand hectares. Up to eighty percent of the crop was ruined. The FAO official warned that if the disease is not controlled, it would have a major effect on maize production in Kenya.
Muo Kasina is a researcher with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute. He is working with others to fight the disease. But he says there is no known way to treat it.
KASINA: “The problem is we do not have the experience at all with this disease in Kenya. So for me, I really have no idea at all what I expect to see in the future.” (:12)
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