Smart farm: GM cassava trials boost yields amid disease losses in Kilifi

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]And cassava farmers in the country are increasingly exploring new options to address years of losses caused by the highly destructive brown streak disease.

[00:00:09]In Kilifi County, trial fields of genetically modified cassava are drawing attention as farmers closely monitor its performance and consider its potential.

[00:00:19]On this week's Smart Farm, our reporter Dennis Otieno is back from the coastal town of Mutwapa where he met cassava farmers yearning for the switch.

[00:00:37]For many farmers across the coastal region, cassava has long been a crop defined by uncertainty. Despite its ability to withstand dry conditions, pests and diseases continue to cause losses, leading some farmers to abandon the crop altogether.

[00:01:27]At a trial fields in Mutwapa, Kilifi County, genetically modified cassava being promoted under the Kinga Kuru varieties is now presenting a different picture. The variety has been developed to address cassava brown streak disease, a devastating disease that can wipe out entire plantations. And the objective of the project is to develop and deploy uh cassava varieties that have a durable resistance to uh the most devastating viral diseases, that is cassava brown streak disease and cassava mosaic disease. Both the diseases are transmitted by insects.

[00:02:06]Compared to conventional cassava, which is more vulnerable to pest infestation and disease, Kinga Kuru cassava shows stronger resistance, resulting in healthier plants and more uniform roots.

[00:02:18]We have been researching for the past 7 years on this crop that you are seeing here because we want to give Kenyans the best variety they can grow to make money. It produces very big roots.

[00:02:32]It has a good resources.

[00:02:35]It is somehow drought resistance. We want to ensure Kenyans that whatever is in the country like this Kinga Kuru cassava that we produce here is safe for the Kenyan population and ready for release to the environment.

[00:02:46]>> A lot of work is being done by the scientists in terms in the GMO space and all of these scientists are being superintended over by the National Biosafety Authority. We train groups, we do demonstrations for the groups that we have. We also train seed entrepreneurs, those who we expect to bulk seed and share to other farmers.

[00:03:09]After years of repeated losses, many farmers are now reconsidering their options.

[00:04:03]We've been able to uh show that this eight lines or eight varieties that we are we are promoting under the Kinga Kuru flagship, uh they are high yielding, uh giving over 10% over what is conventional varieties. GM cassava trials here in Mutwapa are still ongoing, but early indications suggest that these varieties could help address long-standing challenges facing cassava farmers in the country.

[00:04:35]Dennis Otieno, Smart Farm.