wheat blight research

The annual rate of food production has fallen over the years in Kenya. This has resulted into food shortages, sometimes culminating in famine situations. In order to assuage this situation, there is need to explore ways of increasing food production. Wheat is one of Kenya's staple food crops and is grown by both large and small scale farmers. Due to the fact that wheat is one of the main staple food among Kenyans, its production has gained a lot of emphasis since failure to produce enough wheat would mean that food security is threatened.

The causal agent of northern leaf blight of maize Exserohilum turcicum has a high variability in
terms of cultural, virulence and genetic characteristics. The study was conducted with a view to
assessing this variability by cultural and molecular characterization, race typing, phytotoxin
production, aggressiveness determination and histopathology studies. An evaluation of reaction
, on both susceptible and resistant genotypes was made using different isolates of the pathogen. A

Wheat is an important staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the current wheat consumption of 900 000 tons in Kenya outweighs the wheat production of 350 000 tons given the high population growth and inflation. The stem rust currently poses the greatest threat to wheat production due to the emergence of the virulent race of the Puccinia graminis f. sp tritici, Ug99 (TTKS) and its variants Ug99 + Sr24 (TTKSK) and Ug99 + Sr36 (TTKST) leading to about 70 to 100% yield losses.

This study was carried out to determine the causal agent of blight disease on leaf petiole
and stem of sweetpotato in different agro-ecological zones in Kenya, investigate its
optimal in-vitro growth and sporulation conditions and determine the importance of the
pathogen in disease development under different soil pH levels as well as field
conditions. A total of 5 different zones were visited. Diseased leaf and vine tissues were
collected and pathogen isolated. The Kabete, Kakamega, Busia (Alupe), and Kabondo

A mathematical model was developed to simulate the deep-bed convective drying of Algerian wheat and barley using the characteristics of the selected local varieties. The nonequilibrium model, composed of a system of partial differential equations (PDEs), was solved using temporal and spatial discretization with some simplifying assumptions.

Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary is one of the most destructive diseases which limits the production of potatoes in Kenya. Most of the potatoes are produced by small-scale farmers who cannot affort to spray their crops effectively due to the high costs involved. Therefore, screening and breeding of clones to develop resistant varieties is necessary to avoid the expensive chemical method of control.

Tomato (Lycopersium esculentum) is one of the widely consumed vegetables in Kenya grown
by both small holders and large commercial producers .A study consisting of a survey and field
experiment was undertaken in Laikipia County to determine the occurrence, severity of spider
mites and whiteflies infestation, and the farmer’s management practices. The survey included 79
farmers, where 49 were open field tomato farmers while 30 were greenhouse tomato farmers.
Simple random sampling technique was used to collect information on the occurrence and

The susceptibility of cassava cultivars to disease is one
of the most important factors that limit cassava production.
Cassava bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas campestris Pv
manihotis often results in considerable, sometimes total
losses in tuber yield, leaves and planting material. Therefore
this study was designed to survey the distribution of cassava
bacterial blight and its causal agents in different
agro-ecological zones of Kenya, interactions between the two
strains of the pathogen, K. campestris QY manihotis and K.

Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) disease is “a looming threat unlike anything farmers have ever
faced before”i especially in the Eastern and Central Africa (ECA) region where maize is an
important staple and food security crop.
About 90% of the regional population depends on maize for food, labor and income. Maize
production in the region is constrained by both biotic and environmental factors. The abiotic
factors include drought, low use of farm inputs especially fertilizers, low soil fertility, low rates

Higher yielding potato vanenes are highly demanded by farmers and
consumers. This study was conducted to determine yield performance of 15
potato clones derived from a breeding population with durable resistance to
late blight. Trials were carried out over two cropping seasons at Tigoni, Molo,
Nyandarua and Meru. Data was collected on plant vigor, number of marketable
size tubers and tuber yield. There was significant (P=0.05) variation in yield
performance of different genotypes across the different sites. Four clones, CIP