Breeding drought tolerant wheat for the marginal areas of Kenya

Over the last 10 years the National Plant Breeding Research Center (NPBRC - Njoro) has been involved in developing wheat varieties for the marginal areas of Kenya with the aim of introducing wheat in the non- traditional region of the country. During this period four varieties tolerant to drought have been released. These include varieties such as Duma, Ngamia, Chozi and the newly released Njoro BW1. At the moment the released varieties are of low yielding and so there is need to develop higher yielding varieties if we are to produce at an economic level. This study was aimed at developing and evaluating some of the germplasm, which have been developed or introduced over the years over their suitability for production in the marginal areas of of Kenya. Over 600 introductions were screened in the screening nursery in Njoro while segregating populations in F2-F8 were selected and advanced to the next generation. A National Dryland Wheat Performance Trial (NDL WPT) was conducted for 10 introduced lines, 3 mutants, 1 Kenya seed line and Duma and Chozi as check varieties. KM14 has been released as a marginal area variety for its high protein content. Line R965 showed higher performance in both yield and hectolitre weight and will be entered for the second NDLWPT in 2002 and may be released as variety later. (author)