SCREENING AND TESTING FINGER MILLET
VARIETIES FOR DROUGHT ADAPTABILITY AND
NUTRITIONAL FACTORS IN EASTERN KENYA
MSc. AGRONOMY
PRESENTED BY: OLIVER W NYONGESA
REG NO. A56/74462/2012
SUPERVISOR: PROF. S. SHIBAIRO
:DR. R. OWNONGA
DATE: 6TH JULY 2012
INTRODUCTION
 Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is a neglected and underutilized
crop in Africa.
 Its an important subsistence cereal crop & livestock feed crop
mostly in eastern African region as drought resistant.
 Finger millet ranks 3rd in cereal production in semi-arid
regions of the world after sorghum and pearl millet (Barbeau
and Hilu, 1993). However its production is limited mainly by
low soil fertility and anti-nutritional factors (phytic acid,
oxalate & tannis)
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND
JUSTIFICATION
 Climate change effects, are undeniably affecting crop production
worldwide whose severity is evident in Eastern Kenya (Hulme et al.,
2001).
 Finger millet production may be limited by drought, low soil fertility
and anti-nutritional factors (FAO 1996).
 There is need for improved finger millet varieties that are drought
tolerant, early maturing, improved performance even under poor soil
conditions and high nutritional factors that can be adopted to curb the
adverse effect of drought and low fertility to increase food security.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
• OVERAL OBJECTIVE
Establish status of finger millet and screen varieties for drought
adaptability and nutritional factors in drought prone ecological
regions of Eastern Kenya as a strategy to combat food insecurity
and climate change.
• SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
1. To determine the current status , constraints and opportunities
2.
3.
of finger millet production.
To screen finger millet varieties for adaptability to drought and
low soil fertility conditions.
Determine the nutritional and anti-nutritional factors affecting
taste and preference of finger millet.
HYPOTHESIS
 Farmers have valuable information that can be used to
increase finger millet production.
 Finger millet varieties are adaptable to drought and low
soil nutrient conditions.
 Anti-nutritional factors such as tannin, phytic acid and
oxalates are effecting negatively the preference of finger
millet as a cereal crop.
METHODOLOGY
Site:
 Research will be conducted in two sites of Eastern Kenya;
Machakos (High potential) and Kitui (low potential).
 Study will comprise of both survey & field experiment
a. Field survey
 Survey will be conducted for objective one by administering a
developed questionnaire to 120 selected farmers with help of local
agricultural Ext’ officer.
Cont’
b. Field experiment
• RCBD with a split-plot arrangement replicated three times will be
employed.
• Sites being the main plot, varieties as sub plot and treatments (subsubplot).
• Twenty different varieties both improved and local varieties will be
assessed. A plot sizes of 5m by 4m and spacing of 30cm by 15cm will
be used.
Varieties used
i.
ICRISAT varieties: KNE- 1034, KNE-497, KNE-814, KNE-689,
KNE-741 & KAL,
ii. KARI VARIETIES: P-224, U-15, Gulu-E, Okhale-1, P-228, KAT
FVM-1.
Cont’
iii. LOCAL VARIETIES: Eastern variety; wembee, Teso varieties
–Ebunit & Ebuluu, Kisii varieties - Enyakundi & Emarage,
Bungoma varieties-Nanjala brown & Emumware and Busia
variety-MS
Treatments
i.
Fertilizers (T.S.P40kgs/ha & C.A.N 50kgs/ha)
ii. Organic manure (cow manure) 10tones/ha
iii. Absolute control
 Recommended agronomic field practices for finger millet
will be observed during the growing season.
cont’
Data to be collected
 Rainfall, temperature and soil moisture data will be
collected at different growth stages to quantify the
degree water of stress.
 Above ground biomass and root biomass will be taken at
different growth stages.
 At harvest, yield components will be determined.
 Nutritional contents and anti-nutritional factors will be
analyzed qualitatively in the lab.
Data analysis
 Survey data Will be analyzed SPSS.
 Field and laboratory data will be subjected to Analysis Of
Variance (ANOVA) suing GENSTAT13th edition (2011)
WORK PLAN
ACTIITIES
Concept note
development
Proposal development &
presentation
Survey
Land preparation &
planting of season 1
Data collection & entry
Land preparation &
Planting season 2
Data collection & entry
Data analysis & thesis
writing
J
J
A S O N
D J
F M
A
M J
J
A
S
EXPECTED OUTPUT
 Determine and recommend better performing finger millet
varieties that are drought tolerant with an improved
nutritional factors
 Publish and present at least one paper
 Thesis
BUDGET
NO ACTIVITIES
AMOUNT(ksh)
1.
Survey activity
180,000
2.
Leasing land for two sites for two seasons
8,000
3.
Land preparation
10,000
4.
Seeds acquisition
12,000
5.
Fertilizers & manure
5,400
6.
Planting
10,000
7.
Thinning & gapping
6,000
8.
Technical assistance
50,000
9.
Laboratory analysis
100,000
10.
Transport & communication
50,000
11.
Miscellaneous
10,000
12
Contingency 10%
0.1*441,400 = 44,140.00
Grand total
485,540.00
THANK YOU