Kenya Launches Drought-Tolerant Crop Varieties
Kenya’s ministry of agriculture on Tuesday launched several drought resistant and high yielding crop varieties to be deployed in 21 arid and semi arid counties where hunger and malnutrition is rampant.
Principal Secretary for Livestock, Andrew Tuimur said the drought tolerant crops including beans, green grams, cassava and grain amaranth will be distributed to an estimated 10 million smallholder farmers in dry regions.
"Food and nutrition security is a major challenge in arid and semi arid zones, hence the need to accelerate adoption of drought tolerant varieties developed in our research stations," Tuimur said in Nairobi.
The new drought tolerant crop varieties and technologies to fight livestock diseases were developed through a five year arid and semi arid lands agricultural productivity research project (ASAL-APRP) funded by the European Union.
Tuimur said Kenya and its bilateral partners have prioritized financing of research and innovations that would strengthen climate resilient farming practices.
Tim Green