It is harvest time in Kenya, and Joseph Thika has had to hire workers to help him harvest his cotton crop. Joseph is happy that his genetically modified plants matured faster this year, compared to the variety he used in the past. Kenya is counting on this solution to revive its struggling textile industry.
The Bt cotton variety they are using is a genetically modified pest resistant plant which naturally produces an insecticide to combat bollworm, a pest which destroys cotton plants., a soil-dwelling bacterium which is fatal to bollworm larvae. Thika says he ventured into the new variety after receiving training from state agriculture officers.Evans Ngure lives a few kilometers from Thika's farm. Ngure is a well-known cotton farmer in Nyangate village. According to Ngure, he harvests 800 kilos of ginned cotton from his single-hectare farm every three months.
"Each sack is 35 kgs and you can harvest 100 sacks and with a kilogram trading for about 55 shillings, you get a lot of money per hectare compared to the old variety. "Farmers who are willing to plant go to the Ministry of Agriculture with their Identification card, they get the amount of seed they want to plant in their hectarage. After planting, the ginners are connected to farmers so they come and get the seed cotton from buying centres where they pay farmers on delivery."
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Source: ITNewsAfrica - 🏆 27. / 59 Read more »