Transcript Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLN) disease

Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND)
How the maize seed sector in Uganda is
dealing with it
Strategic Planning Workshop
August 21 – 23, 2013
Nairobi - Kenya
Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries
(MAAIF)
National Seed Board
National Seed Certification
Services (NSCS)
Variety Release
Committee
National Agricultural Research
Organization (NARO)
Private Companies
Private Companies
Seed
Policy
Production and
Processing
Distributors
Informal Seed System
Importers
NGOs & Relief
Agencies
Stockists
Farmers
Government and
Donors
Background
• MLN is a real problem in Uganda
• Scientists from NARO raised the need for
surveillance in September 2012 during the
NVRC sitting in Entebbe
• First cases reported in October 2012 in Busia
• More cases in border districts of Tororo, Mbale
and Kapchorwa later
• Maize is a crop of economic and political
importance in Uganda
Dealing with the disease….Broadly
1. Workshop in Nairobi - February 12-14, 2013
raised awareness of seed sector players
2. National workshop with stakeholders in
Kampala on February 28, 2013
– Caution: Let scientists to take centre stage in
providing facts about MLN to avoid confusion in the
farming community
3. Awareness creation to seed industry players
Dealing with the
disease….Interventions in Uganda
i. Press releases by MAAIF in the print media
[input from NAADS & NARO] - Educate
farmers on symptoms of MLND
ii. DAOs alerted especially in Eastern Uganda
on surveillance by MAAIF [Not to allow
importation of seed from Kenya]
iii. At seed company level, information sharing
with seed distributors and stockists
Dealing with the
disease….Interventions in Uganda
iv. Commercial hybrids, inbred lines and
some OPVs sent for screening through
NARO
v. 2013A season:
• Monitoring for symptoms especially in Eastern Uganda
• Wide spread drought experienced in the country –
Withering of plants could be falsely associated with
drought
Dealing with the disease….
• Workshop – February 12-14, 2013: can we
revisit outcomes and implement them
religiously?
• Fast track release of tolerant hybrids….
– [Tolerant hybrids…. Give us to multiply]
– [Resistant inbred lines…. Give us to bulk]
– [What happens to certification… regional
approach]
– Fact sheet – beyond news papers
What are lingering challenges….
• What should farmers be informed about
Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND)?
– That it is not a seed borne??
– That it is not airborne?
– That it is a insect-vector borne disease?
– That it is an agronomic management problem?
• How can the causes of the disease be
explained to farmers?
• Are the disease symptoms discrete?
What are lingering challenges….
• The Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) disease has
no cure so far??.
• Surveillance:
– Clearly index symptoms
– Clearly provide action points to be followed in
cases of identification
– Who does the scouting in the maize farms
– Practice crop rotation (at what stage?)
• Prevention vs cure …. MLN peculiar….many
unknowns
What are lingering challenges….
• How or at what stage can seed companies
access material of the few resistant / tolerant
varieties?
• Are all seed companies informed / trained /
and how can this be done?
• Have seed companies got the morality to
educate in a balanced way
• What capacity does MAAIF have to detect the
disease
Conclusion
• Still debatable to conclude that Uganda is
adequately equipped and prepared for controlling
MLN. [Border porous and quarantine not official]
• The solution lies in urgently finding an immediate,
collective, and concerted response to the imminent
spread of this serious pest [as breeders and
pathologists do their work]
• We need a regional and multi-institutional
approach to manage MLN