Kale in Kenya- Ag Issue 2012 Essay

Jonathan King Ag 101 September 16, 2012 Current Issues in Horticulture- Kale in Kenya I am going to go into the Horticultural field and one of the issues facing horticulture today is solving world hunger. Kenya is a nation that mostly lives in poverty, The United States and other countries are trying to help the Kenyan poverty problem by researching different food that can grow there along with trying to improve the food that they already have. A big crop in Kenya is kale because it costs so little to produce and the name sakuma wiki the Kenyan name for kale loosely translated means that it can sustain people throughout the week due to its extreme affordability, particularly for those who earn a dollar and below a day. The kale in Kenya is poor quality and it yields easily to diseases like black rot and leaf spot. Through a collaborative research project investigating the poor quality of kale seeds in parts of Kenya a team found that the best kale plants in Kenya originate from Kinale, a forested region north of Nairobi on the edge of the rift valley. The plants were then took to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute and propagated to obtain clean, disease-free seed. Five lines of kale were developed and two of them did very well once the seed was tested in different parts. The propagated seed flowered later thus making the crop produce longer and had a better color with a sweeter flavored leaf. By using Horticulture the problem of hunger in Kenya is being addressed by diversifying kale to improve food and nutrition and to improve the economy by making a better plant that people would want to buy and eat.