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Development and promotion
of improved, high-yielding bean varieties for sustainable food security,
nutrition and household income in western Kenya
R.M.
Otsyula, P.R. Rubaihayo, R. Buruchara
Farmers in western Kenya are dependent on beans (Phaseolus
vulgaris
L.) for both food security and income. Farm bean production is reduced
significantly
by incidence of pests and diseases. Yield losses of up to 100% have been
experienced in areas where there is bean root rot disease in farmers’
fi
elds. Host resistance offers the least costly but most effective strategy
for farmers, particularly small landholders, to manage bean root rot.
Resistant varieties have been identified
and made available to farmers but do not have characteristics farmers
prefer. In efforts to increase bean production, to improve the popular
varieties grown in Kenya and to reduce yield losses caused by bean root
rots, several bean populations have been designed to transfer resistance
against the diseases into major locally adapted bush bean cultivars by
crossing the resistant varieties to commercially grown varieties. These
populations, along with a number of introduced lines from the
International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) germplasm, showing
good levels of resistance were selected and evaluated by breeders and
farmers for adaptability and suitability to farming systems. The objective
of this research work is to integrate farmers’ criteria in varietal
development and selection, increasing the probability of acceptance and
adoption while cutting down the period of varietal development, and
scaling up testing and dissemination of the new varieties. About 12
farmers’ groups are involved in these evaluations with each group
evaluating different genotypes and advanced lines and different
generations of segregating populations based on their previous experience
in varietal selection. The trials are conducted on Kenya Agricultural
Research Institute (KARI) sites and in bean root rot hot spots on farmer’s
fields
in Vihiga District, western Kenya. Farmers have so far selected
five
backcross root rot-resistant lines and 30 advanced F7 recombinant
inbred lines advanced from single-plant selection in the F2
generation. Seed multiplication of theses materials is being done through
farmer initiative for wider testing and adoption in other relevant areas.
Breeders at the KARI centre in Kakamega are using this information for
yield and other agronomic testing required for varietal release. This work
demonstrates the contribution of farmers in developing and selecting
varieties.
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