Rice farming in Western Kenya has received a boost after a Sh2.8 million seed dressing machine was donated to KALRO Kibos.
The machine seeks to improve their capacity to develop certified seed by ensuring farmers have access to good quality seeds.
This is aimed at strengthening its seed production capacity to produce quality seed of improved high yielding rice varieties for increased productivity, income generation and food security in Kenya.
The Seed Dressing Machine donated by International Rice Research Institute will enable KALRO Kibos move from manual system of seed dressing to mechanical system.
According to Daniel Menge from IRR, the machine will enhance seed production capacity of the centre as it is able to produce five tonnes per day compared to 200kgs per day by the manual system.
He said the Western region is now the new frontier for rice production in the country.
"This seed dredger we are donating here today, has the capacity of dressing around five tonnes per day and this will go along way in ensuring farmers in Western Kenya have access to good quality seeds."
The machine is automated, the whole process is to mix the seeds with fungicide so that when you plant the seed in the farm, it is not attacked by the insects.
Within the machine, there is a chamber that goes into the machines and another where the chemical goes.
Teresa Okiyo, Plant Breeder and Seed Manager KALRO Kibos, said the machine has come as a blessing to them.
She said they have had so many challenges in their farms because they were not able to access certified seeds.
Okiyo noted that farmers have been planting recycled seeds and with this, the quality goes down and diseases cannot be checked.
"This was because we did not have the machines even to process the seeds, because if you have seeds, you need to process it before you give it to farmers.
Okiyo said the manual process they were using was very slow and this was a great bottleneck in providing seeds to farmers.
She said this was not something affecting one county but it was affecting the whole rice growing belt East of the Rift Valley, a very massive area.
In the certification process, the plant breeder said they were producing certified seed of rice variety called Komboka, which has to be processed manually. The chemical rate they need to use in the seed which is 15grams, they were able to do 3kg of seeds per time, and this had to be mixed Mannuel with Mwikios or stick which will take a lot of time.
"In the end you are not sure if you are hurting the seed, having a uniform mixture or rather if the seed dressing is evenly dressed on the seed, so we would end up with what is not done."