By Rodgers Wagura
A seed producing company has introduced high yielding and resistant onion seeds to farmers in Kieni constituency.
East Africa Seeds Company introduced them yesterday during a farmers field day held in Endarasha area.
More than 800 onion farmers attended the free field day and benefited from the drought, pests and disease resistant onion seeds dubbed Striker F1.
Poor prices, lack of market and flooding of Onions from neighbouring countries like Tanzania has been daily cries of Onion farmers in areas that produce them, Kieni being on of them.
During the field day, the farmers were trained on how to take care of their farms and the onion seedlings to ensure they meet market requirements and good returns.
Martin Karanja, an Agronomist with the company urged farmers to stop being pressured by the crop brokers to harvest before the crop is ready as this ends up going bad before it reaches the intended consumers.
He said they choose to introduce the seeds in Kieni as the crop is widely produced in the area and due to climate change resulting to drought that was experienced recently.
He said the seeds will do well as it’s resistant to drought, pests and disease resistant and the farmer will be expected get good returns.
Karanja added that the new crop is highly productive with a small area yielding more compared to other varieties.
Peter Mwangi Onion farmer in the area said that the seeds they were earlier using were prone to diseases and pests thus reducing their production and income.
He thanked the company for training them on good farming practices that will see them increase their production, meeting market requirements and thus fetch them good returns.
During the field day, East Africa Seeds Company officers also demonstrated to them how to take care of the crop from nurseries till harvesting using a demonstration farm in one of the farms.
The farmer said that with the introduction of the striker F1 they will reap big as the crop requires little work and it’s high yielding.