Encouraging youth willing to become “hunger fighters” to take up the challenges of farming despite erratic weather caused by climate change, drought, dwindling water supplies and nutrient-depleted soil, is key to future food security, said Julie Borlaug, associate director for external relations at the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University.
Throughout the late 1970s to early 1990s stem rust disease had been controlled in Kenya through the development of resistant varieties by Karlo Njoro. In the late 1990s, a new race called ug99, highly virulent to most commercial varieties emerged. This race that was initially detected in Uganda in 1999 quickly spread to Kenya causing devastating crop losses in fields planted to popular commercial varieties then including Duma, Kenya Heroe, Chozi, Kenya Yombi. For Instance, total crop losses attributable to stem rust were reported by many farmers in Narok in 2007.
Following renewed threat posed by emerging races of stem rust including UG99, an alarm was raised led by, among others, the Nobel Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug for a concerted global effort to combat the threat. This effort culminated in the creation of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), which brought together many international institutions including Karlo (Then KARI) with the objective of systematically reducing the world’s vulnerability to stem, yellow, and leaf rust of wheat and facilitating the evolution of a sustainable international system to contain the threat of wheat rusts.
Monsanto’s Board of Directors, Bayer’s Board of Management and Bayer’s Supervisory Board have unanimously approved the agreement. Based on Monsanto’s closing share price on May 9, 2016, the day before Bayer’s first written proposal to Monsanto, the offer represents a premium of 44 percent to that price.
“We are pleased to announce the combination of our two great organizations. This represents a major step forward for our Crop Science business and reinforces Bayer’s leadership position as a global innovation driven Life Science company with leadership positions in its core segments, delivering substantial value to shareholders, our customers, employees and society at large,” said Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer AG.
A local seed industry players association has warned that climate change is a reality and not a myth anymore, and has called on farmers to prepare to respond to the phenomenon by putting in place mitigating measures.
“Global warming is here with us. The phenomenon of climate change in Kenya is now more apparent than has been before in recent history,” says Mr. Duncan Ochieng Onduu, the Chief Executive Officer, of STAK. The Seed Trader Association of Kenya (STAK) is one body that is not taking this for granted. To keep farmers and other stakeholders abreast of developments in this area, STAK will host an Annual Congress and Expo, from November 8-9, 2016, at Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya. This year’s theme is “Utilizing Agricultural Technology to Mitigate against Climate Change and Improve Agricultural Productivity”.
By Julie Mollins
The agriculture for development sector must begin “nourishing” families with nutrition-sensitive interventions instead of focusing on “feeding,” said a leading food security expert at a conference in Mexico City hosted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
“We’ve spent a lot of time in the last 50 years in the comfort zone of ‘feeding’,” said Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, who is the is the chief executive for the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) in southern Africa.
On a panel of experts, which included researchers, policymakers, farmers and the private sector, Sibanda urged almost 1,000 delegates attending the three day conference to consider the potential risks of focusing solely on boosting yields and fortifying grains with micronutrients and vitamin A, rather than developing strategies for increased dietary diversity.