Prof. Reimund Rötter of the University of Göttingen during a field visit at JOOUST Agricultural FacultyJaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology has partnered with German institutions on a research initiative to combat plunging maize yields and bolster food security in the Lake Victoria basin.
The four-year project, which could be extended to eight years, will examine how climate change and multiple stresses affecting maize interact to undermine yields.
The researchers will focus on water shortages, inadequate nitrogen, pests and diseases, among other factors, with the ultimate goal of developing maize varieties and farming practices that can withstand changing environmental conditions.
Project leader Prof Denis Ochuodho said the research was driven by the need to find practical solutions to food insecurity affecting communities in the region.
“As researchers and a university with the local community, our role is to solve challenges that are affecting our local community, and one key challenge is food security,” he said during a field visit at JOOUST’s agricultural faculty.
The project came amid growing concerns over poor harvests, with farmers facing a combination of erratic weather, declining soil fertility, pests and diseases.
JOOUST deputy vice chancellor in charge of planning, administration and finance, Agrey Thuo, said the impact of crop failures was being felt by households that depend heavily on maize for food and livestock feed.
“Specifically, this year almost all the regions of this country had a crop failure,” he said.
Thuo said addressing declining productivity was critical not only for farmers but also for household food supplies and the wider agricultural economy.
The research brings together JOOUST and a consortium of German institutions, including the University of Göttingen and the University of Hohenheim.
Prof Reimund Rötter of the University of Göttingen said researchers needed to move beyond studying individual stresses in isolation and instead examine how different pressures affect crops simultaneously.
He said understanding the interaction between biological and environmental stresses would be critical in developing maize varieties capable of performing under future climate conditions.
The project will run seven interconnected research components examining different stresses within the Lake Victoria basin, with corresponding research activities in Germany.
The studies will combine agronomy, crop phenotyping, entomology and socioeconomic research to establish how maize responds to different combinations of environmental and biological pressures.
At the University of Hohenheim, Prof. Hans-Peter Piepho is leading work on the statistical design and analysis of the experiments.
The complex research design will enable scientists to distinguish the effects of individual treatments from variations caused by different environments, helping generate reliable evidence for farmers and breeders.
JOOUST deputy vice chancellor in charge of research, innovation and extension Julius Manyala said the project would strengthen the university’s position in international agricultural research.
He said the maize programme was part of JOOUST’s wider research portfolio, which currently comprises 18 active projects worth about Sh1.8 billion.
Manyala said the university was keen to ensure research findings do not remain confined to laboratories and academic publications but are translated into practical information that farmers can use.
The project will also provide training opportunities for postgraduate researchers, with the partners seeking to build an interdisciplinary pool of scientists capable of tackling complex agricultural challenges.
The researchers hope the findings will support the development of locally relevant strategies for improving maize productivity and help farmers cope with increasingly unpredictable growing conditions.
For communities across the Lake Victoria basin, where maize remains central to household diets and livestock production, the researchers say improving resilience of the crop will be essential to securing food supplies in the face of climate change.
