County Government of Busia has called on the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) to speed up the release of elite cassava variety seed from their ongoing research.
Speaking when he hosted the team from KALRO Secretariate Directorate of Crops, which paid him a courtesy call in his office on Tuesday, the CECM for Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Agribusiness, Moses Osia said cassava farming done on a large scale in Busia.
He said the main challenge is getting clean seed particularly those resistant from Mosaic disease.
“For this to happen, we are going to work closely with KALRO to ensure we get clean seed for farmers and we hope to have it by the next planting season,” Osia said.
Cassava is one of the crops under the Kenya Climate Smart Agriculture Project that is being undertaken by three counties including Busia, Kisumu and Lamu for food and nutrition security.
The team led by the Director of crops Systems, Lusike Wasilwa said they have taken long to get the much-needed seeds but assured that they are on the right path.
“KCSAP chose cassava because it provides resilience especially in the dry season and many families can still fall back to it,” said Dr. Simon Omondi who is in charge of applied research.
The team also visited Tangakona Commercial Village Farmers which is already utilizing the improved cassava varieties to make value added products, to assess its progress and forge the way forward of making it better.
Currently, Busia is producing eight tones of cassava per acre, a margin that the stakeholders are working hard to improve.