Common Cereal Diseases

Cereal farmers continue to face challenges with controlling different forms of rust and Fusarium head blight. The most notorious form of rust is stem rust (Black rust). Stem rust reduces yields and quality of grains and may cause up to 100% yield loses. Over time the greatest challenge facing wheat production in Kenya and globally has been getting varieties that are resistant to the deadly Ug99 strain of stem rust.

Stem rust urediniospores are well-suited for wind dispersal. They are dark-coloured and can tolerate exposure to ultraviolet light, are adapted to a wide humidity and temperature range and are carried in wind currents at altitudes up to 4.5 km.

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Protecting Plant Health for Food and Nutritional Security

By B.M. Prasanna

Global networks present unified and transdisciplinary strategy to protect key crops from devastating pests and diseases.

Robust and resilient agrifood systems begin with healthy crops. Without healthy crops the food security and livelihoods of millions of resource-constrained smallholder famers in low- and middle-income countries would be in jeopardy. Yet, climate change and globalization are exacerbating the occurrence and spread of devastating insectpests and pathogens.

Each year, plant diseases cost the global economy an estimated $220 billion — and invasive insect-pests at least $70 billion more. In addition, mycotoxins such as aflatoxins pose serious threats to the health and wellbeing of consumers. Consumption of mycotoxin-contaminated food can cause acute illness, and has been associated with increased risk of certain cancers and immune deficiency syndromes.

Effective plant health management requires holistic approaches that strengthen global and local surveillance and monitoring capacities, and mitigate negative impacts through rapid, robust responses to outbreaks with ecologically friendly, socially-inclusive and sustainable management approaches.

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Regenerative agriculture for soil health

Farming system harnesses the power of biology to rebuild soil organic matter, diversify crop systems, and improve water retention and nutrient uptake.

South Asia was the epicenter of the Green Revolution, a historic era of agricultural innovation that fed billions of people on the brink of famine.

Yet despite the indisputably positive nutritional and developmental impacts of the Green Revolution of the 1960s, the era of innovation also led to the widespread use of farming practices—like intensive tilling, monoculture, removal and burning of crop residues, and overuse of synthetic fertilizer—that have a deleterious effect on the soil and cause off-site ecological harm. Excess pumping of irrigation water over decades has dried out the region’s chief aquifer.

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The 2nd National Agriculture Summit 2022

By Mary Mwende Mbithi

Daniel Webster, a lawyer and statesman from the United States of America, once said, “Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labour of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization.” True to that, agriculture has or rather was man’s early way of life. Agriculture has sustained the globe over the years, providing food as well as employment. It is indeed the cornerstone of all industries.

Recently, the 2nd National Agriculture Summit took place at the Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organisation (KALRO) in Loresho, Nairobi. Agriculture Sector Network (ASNET), together with the ministry of Agriculture, Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) and all Agriculture stakeholders held discussions on what should be done for agriculture to become more profitable.

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