Nakuru County Governor Kinuthia Mbugua has urged residents not to sell their harvests as the county is facing an eminent food shortage in the near future.
This follows the outbreak of the Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND) which has affected more than ten thousand acres of maize in Naivasha, Kuresoi and Subukia areas leading to reduced maize harvests.
The governor however assured residents that the county government will work closely with the national government to ensure that the county is not stricken by hunger.
“Let us preserve the little that we have now to avert any food shortage in future,” said the governor.
In August, the Agriculture ministry said it was working with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (Kari) to deal with the disease.
Agriculture cabinet secretary Felix Koskei said that a research centre to handle crop diseases such as the lethal maize necrosis disease will be set up in Naivasha and that officers from the ministry had been deployed to affected counties to analyse the situation.
The disease threatens the country’s food supply which is main maize and which the disease has greatly decimated.