You can feel Rose Akinyi Otieno's excitement as she walks other farmers through her maize farm. Initially, it is difficult to understand her excitement. Unlike many farms in Gongo, Rangwe Division, Homa Bay County, is reeling under the devastating effects of striga. Her excitement is built on a 400 square metres plot that clearly stands out: it has a very robust maize crop and no sign of striga.

It is one of the several plots the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), and other partners under the Striga Management Project, set up to demonstrate the efficacy of a striga resistant maize variety. The variety, imazapyr-resistance (IR) maize - locally known as Ua Kayongo, kills striga.

Dr Gospel Omanya, seed systems manager at AATF, explains that the IR maize variety — locally marketed as WS303 — is not resistant to the weed. It is only resistant to the coating herbicide (imazapyr that is marketed in Kenya as Strigaway) that kills striga and any other seed. The chemical diffuses into the soil and kills striga seed in the soil. Any striga that may have survived the soil attack is killed when it attaches itself to the maize and sucks the herbicide from the maize roots.

Striga is a parasite plant that survives by literally sucking nutrients out of the crops. Striga attaches itself to the roots of the host plant and survives by siphoning off minerals, assimilate and water for its own growth, causing serious damage and yield reduction to the infected crop.

It is now easy to understand the excitement of Akinyi and other farmers who visited similar plots in Gongo, during Kagan farmers’ field day in early last month.

Click here to view article on The Standard, Kenya | pdf