Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Annual Report 2006

Abstract

During the year 2006, the Institute implemented several donor supported programmes. These programmes included the Kenya Agricultural Productivity Project (KAPP); the Western Kenya Integrated Ecosystem Project (WKIEMP); USAID-SO7 Project; the Desert Margin Project (DMP); small grants projects such as ecosystems breeding, legumes network project, conservation tillage and others with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. A number of scientists won competitive grants to supplement the support from mainstream development partners. Several international and CGIAR centres also collaborated with us in the implementation of key research activities. In the same year, the management continued to commercialize its activities through the Agricultural Research Investment Service (ARIS). This greatly improved the generation of funds, internally. Through these projects and the support we received from the Government of Kenya (GoK), we attained most of our targets in our Performance Contract and the Institute was rated 'Very Good' by the Government. During the year under review, we released new varieties of maize and sorghum to the market. Three of the maize varieties were licensed to the East African Seed Company Ltd. (EASEED), Crop Africa and Olerai seed companies. We posted a list of 10 new maize varieties on the KARI website in an effort to create awareness on KARI Maize Research Programme. It is our hope that these efforts will improve farmers' access to seed and the relevant information on suitable varieties for various agroecological zones.