Farmers Helping Farmers Team Reviews Corn Varieties

Farmers Helping Farmers Team Reviews Corn Varieties


The headlines of the Kenyan newspapers describe the food situation in Kenya. Many people do not have enough food. The papers report that the price of a bag of maize has been raised from 1900 Kenyan shillings to 2300 Kenyan shillings. Food security is a big issue here now.

The members of the Muchui Womens Group are especially at risk because they live in a very dry area.

Farmers Helping Farmers is carrying out a project with the Muchui Womens Group members in Kiirua to search out and demonstrate drought tolerant crops that will grow in this very dry area.

Angus Mellish, Shauna Mellish and Susan MacKinnon are here in Kenya to review the performance of the crops being grown by the Muchui Womens Group members. They are also looking at the management of the crops.

Yesterday they visited several members’ farms including Isabella Nkubu’s farm and Elizabeth Kirema’s farm. In spite of the poor rainfall, they saw a good stand of maize grown from several varieties of maize seed. There were one to two large well-filled cobs on most plants.

In addition the crops have been well managed. They fields are weed-free, the seed and row spacing is right, the fertility is appropriate -on the whole a great job is being done by these women.

Along with the Kenyan staff working on this project, they will be making recommendations for the next round of crops.

Prepared by Teresa Mellish and Susan MacKinnon
January 30 2009