Kenyan farmers now have access to 20 clinics, based at weekly markets, that offer advice on dealing with worsening pest problems
NAIROBI - Mary Kihara pulls a sickly-looking tomato plant out of a green plastic bag. She has travelled more than 10 km from her farm to Wangige market in Kikuyu district, central Kenya. But she is not coming to sell.
Her plant is diseased, and Kihara has brought it to show to a plant doctor - a specialist trained to diagnose crop diseases and offer advice on the best treatment.
“This clinic helps a lot because when you come they tell you the medicine to buy,” said Kihara, a farmer in her 50s who owns a quarter acre of land.
Kihara is just one of thousands of farmers in central Kenya who are benefitting from a new programme introduced by the Kenyan government in collaboration with the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International (CABI), an international organization working to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.
Scientists in Kenya have noticed an increase in crop pests and diseases believed linked to changing climate conditions, including more intense rainfall, higher temperatures and more extended droughts.
Peter Karanja, a scientist working with CABI, says that many new diseases and pests have emerged, while some that were thought to have disappeared have re-emerged.
Among the most notorious pests, according to Karanja, is whitefly, which now affects more than 60 percent of the region’s tomatoes and potatoes. Maize, which is commonly afflicted by diseases such as maize streak virus and head smut fungus, has recently also come under threat from rough dwarf virus, which is being transmitted from leafhoppers from Uganda.
The new plant clinic, as it is known, has been operating on a weekly basis at the Wangige market for the past six months, and farmers say it has been a significant help.
“I visit the clinic whenever I have a problem. When I was preparing my land, I realized it had a problem and that’s why I came to consult and I have been told what to do,” said Beth Wanjiko, a farmer who grows spices, vegetables, legumes, green maize, and bananas.
“I was told how to rotate my crops, and I just needed a note to get the right pesticide,” she said.
In part because of growing pest problems, Wanjiko now grows napier grass as fodder for livestock instead of maize. She says that changes in the weather caused the loss of a lot of her maize crop until she made the crop switch recently.
“I had problems with stalk borers which affected my maize four months ago, which made me come to the plant clinic,” she said.
Elizabeth Njoroge, a crops officer in the Ministry of Agriculture for Kabete division in Kikuyu district, said she has also seen global warming pressures exacerbate crop diseases and pests. For instance, the red spider mite, which used to attack primarily tomatoes, is now attacking other crops as well, she said.
“The weather is too hot, and now the red spider mite is feeding on what is available, including potatoes and wheat,” Njoroge said.
CABI developed the plant clinic concept in Bolivia, Bangladesh and Nicaragua, and formed a partnership with the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture to introduce plant clinics in Kenya. Since the programme began in September 2010, 20 clinics have been established and 100 plant doctors trained, but many more clinics and crop specialists are needed to address the growing problems, CABI officials said.
The clinic at Wangige market is visited by as many as 70 farmers each week, more than the two assigned plant doctors can manage to see.
According to Karanja, when farmers come back after an initial visit to the clinic, it is mostly with new problems. That suggests the right prescriptions are being given and that farmers are confident they will get helpful advice.
“Clinics are the eyes of the farmer to look at where new diseases are coming from,” Karanja said. The clinics are also serving as a surveillance tool to help scientists and the government understand how climate change is affecting farmers so that the right interventions can be made.
Pius Sawa is a freelance science journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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