In order to improve maize yield in the county of Kiambu and other parts of the country, the ministry of agriculture is urging farmers to be wary of a diseases known as maize necrosis disease, which causes major harm to the crop.
Speaking during an agricultural forum in Kiambu today, the monitoring and evaluation officer, Jane Muigai said that the maize lethal necrosis disease is a combination of two viruses, namely maize chlorotic mottle virus and maize dwarf mosaic virus among other different viruses.
The officer stated that the lethal disease has no cure once the maize crop is affected the only option left for the farmer is to cut and heap the plantation in an isolated part of the farm and burn it.
Muigai mentioned that once the maize in your farm is affected, one cannot plant another maize crop on the same field for the next two or three seasons so as to ensure the field is free of all the disease causing pathogens and viruses.
Affected farmers are advised to do scouting in their maize plantations for signs of the disease.
If a farmer notices a maize plant with symptoms of maize necrosis, which is usually the yellowing of leaves when the plant is at knee length an later on starts to dry turning brown from the mid rib towards the leaf margins, and in some cases the maize has many shoots, it should be uprooted and burnt, the officer said.
She advises that in order to keep the disease at bay farmers should crop rotate their farms and plant different crops such as sorghum, millet, potatoes, beans or bananas for two or more seasons.
The use of certified seeds is very important, farmers using maize seeds from unknown sources can easily introduce diseases into their farms, she noted.
“Regular spraying of maize crop with pesticides is a good practice, but using recommended ones, so that you can keep pests such as aphids, stem borers, maize beetles at bay since they can transfer the disease from one area to another or to different farms,” Muigai said.