New disease resistant maize released for Kenyan farmers

NAIROBI: Kenya Seed Company has released a new maize seed that is resistant to the vicious striga weed. It also guarantees farmers a harvest three times bigger than current levels.  The new seed dubbed StrigAway ican survive the destructive and parasitic weed referred to as Kayongo (Luo), Oluyongo (Luhya), Imoto (Teso), and Kiduha (Kiswahili).

The firm's Managing Director Mr Willy Bett said striga weed reduces maize yields leading to food insecurity and poverty, and that traditional control methods are mainly manual, which is inefficient and labour intensive.