NAIROBI, Oct. 10– Inside a laboratory at the University of Eldoret, about 300 km northwest of Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, tiny plantlets thrive in dozens of glass containers.
Each vessel holds about 10 delicate, centimeter-tall shoots, their fragile stems belying a remarkable resilience.
These plants form part of a broader national push to equip Kenyan farmers with climate-smart crops capable of withstanding shifting weather patterns.
Miriam Kinyua, a professor of plant breeding and biotechnology at the university, said the work uses tissue culture technology to produce clean, improved and more resilient planting materials.
“Many farmers are grappling with erratic weather, drought and rising crop diseases because of climate change. As scientists, we must ensure that we deliver planting materials that can overcome all these,” she told Xinhua in a recent interview.
For Kinyua, the task is urgent. Climate change has fundamentally altered growing conditions, threatening both food security and livelihoods.
The surrounding region, one of Kenya’s main breadbaskets, saw poor rainfall during the March-to-May rainy season, which caused widespread failure of maize, the country’s staple crop.
Kenya is among the Horn of Africa nations bracing for El Nino rains from October to January 2027, which the World Meteorological Organization warns will trigger widespread flooding and destroy crops still in the fields.
“It is for such reasons that we have turned to tissue culture technology to develop potato, banana, coffee as well as pyrethrum seedlings which mature faster and are resistant to diseases and harsh climate,” she said.
The process begins with a small piece of tissue taken from a mother plant, which is then sterilized and placed in a nutrient-rich growing medium containing ingredients such as sucrose and agar.
After about two weeks, the tissue develops into plantlets ready for multiplication.
“Once the roots grow, we either do a second cycle of culturing or multiplication or plant the seedlings for acclimatization,” explained Kinyua.
After they are produced in the lab, the fragile plantlets are gradually exposed to conditions outside the carefully controlled laboratory environment. The process takes about three weeks before the seedlings are ready for planting.
The biotechnologist noted that the good thing with the technology is its speed, cleanliness and ability to mass-produce.
A single mother plant produces between 12 and 18 potato plantlets, allowing researchers to multiply desirable planting materials much faster than conventional methods.
Another key benefit of the technology is that farmers receive disease-free plantlets, noted Betty Gakii, a biotechnology researcher at the University of Eldoret.
She explained that the lab produces two potato varieties, Amani and Fanaka, that are highly favored by farmers for their disease resistance and superior yields.
With proper application of fertilizer and farm management of the crop, Gakii said both varieties, which mature in three months, produce between 25 and 60 tubers per plant.
This is higher as compared to traditionally produced varieties that take up to five months to mature, making them susceptible to the effects of climate change.
For Kenya, producing climate-resilient potato varieties is crucial as the crop is the country’s second staple after maize.
Potatoes are farmed across roughly 225,976 hectares in Kenya, yielding about 2.15 million tonnes annually, according to the Agriculture and Food Authority.
Jackson Kimutai, a Kenyan farmer who has embraced tissue culture planting materials, said he has enjoyed steady harvests despite escalating weather challenges.
“I plant potatoes mainly alongside other crops. From potatoes, because the tissue culture variety I plant matures faster, I was able to get a good harvest despite the rains disappearing early,” he said. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
