Maize Improvement in Kenya

Abstract

Two methods have been adopted, namely the production of inbred strains for subsequent hybridization, and the advocation of mass selection by the grower. The first line of work has been centered at Njoro, where the main object is the production of types suited to the higher limits of maize growing, and at Kitale, where attention has in particular been given to resistance to Fusarium diseases and to White Blight (Helminthosporium turcicum). At both centers a series of single and double crosses between inbred lines in the F 6 generation are being tested out this season against mass selected farm seed in the hope of securing combinations of value