Fast maturing maize, onion offers hope to farmers

Farmers during the annual East African seeds Agricultural Farmers Field Day at Wambugu Farm in Nyeri. [Kibata Kihu, Standard]

A seed company has unveiled new maize and onion varieties that are drought tolerant and guarantee increased yields.

EA seeds introduced the new maize variety — Tosheka, an early maturing type that takes 90 days and is drought tolerant.

According to EA seed Marketing and Sales Manager, Macharia Chege, the maize variety can be planted mainly during the short rains season.

“It does exemplary well during the short rains and with minimal rainfalls required. It can sustain itself under extreme harsh climate conditions,” he said.

It is targeting semi-arid areas in the North and North Eastern regions in the country which receives insufficient rainfall but can also do well in high altitude areas that concentrates on growing coffee and tea.

The average production per acre of Tosheka maize variety is between 25 to 30 bags of maize per acre.

“We are advising farmers to look for high yielding crops because we have suffered crop failures prompted by the erratic weather in most parts of the country,” said Macharia said.

The maize variety was launched during the company’s field day in Nyeri County at the Wambugu Farm Agricultural Training Centre.

Macharia said the company was seeking to address three key challenges facing farmers namely — climate change, low productivity and pest and disease management.

“We have carried out research to come up with seed varieties that can help farmers get high yields despite the drastic changes brought on by climate change.”

The company also rolled out a new variety of onion to increase farmers’ income and reduce post-harvest losses

Red Sanga F1 onion is a seed variety that has early maturity of about 90 days and is resistant to diseases such as purple blotch, tuber rust and common blight.

Macharia noted that the onion will provide farmer access to early markets for the farmers with its early maturing nature.

“Production per unit are will increase and farmers will cut down in cost of management as it requires less attention,” he said adding that farmers can achieve production of between 20 to 24 metric tonnes per acre.

The onion has a semi-globe shape that is highly acceptable in the market and has storage allowance of up to six months.

Bulb onions normally do well in dry highlands with well drained and aerated soils.

According to the company the preferable pH should be at 4.5 to 6.5 which can be complimented by use of manure.

“While applying fertilisers farmers should use 150 to 200kgs per acre but should be cautious while using nitrogenous fertilisers that should not exceed 75kgs per acre to avoid acidifying the soils,” said Macharia.