NAIROBI, May 15 (Xinhua) -- For nearly a year, Hellen Rono, a farmer from Bomet County in western Kenya, has successfully kept tomato wilt disease at bay using grafting technology introduced through a China-Kenya agricultural collaboration, after years of watching her crops perish just before harvest.
Rono discovered the technology, which combines Chinese-sourced rootstock with locally adapted Kenyan tomato seedling varieties, through a joint training program jointly conducted by Egerton University and Nanjing Agricultural University.
"The highest yield from the grafted plants was an incredible 73.2 kg per day, while the non-grafted yield peaked at just 8.7 kg before the plants died," Rono told Xinhua in a recent interview.
Rono, a mother of six, grows tomatoes commercially for local markets in a 120-square-meter greenhouse. Before learning the grafting technique, she cultivated conventional non-grafted tomato varieties. Even within the controlled greenhouse environment, she recalled how her crops would gradually wither one after another just before reaching the critical flowering stage.
"The withering continued until nearly 10 plants were dying each day. That was a huge loss for me because I was growing tomatoes commercially. I was told there was no cure, but I was advised to irrigate the plants heavily to prevent withering. Instead, the situation only worsened," Rono said.
Agricultural specialists who later inspected her greenhouse found that excessively high temperatures were aggravating the problem.
After receiving training on greenhouse temperature regulation, she reduced the number of tomato plants from 500 to 250 to ensure proper spacing and ventilation.
She then introduced grafted seedlings specifically bred to resist bacterial wilt. "I planted both grafted and non-grafted tomatoes in the same greenhouse. After a month, the non-grafted tomatoes started withering, while the grafted ones began flowering one after another."
"The disease did not infect them, while the non-grafted ones continued to wither. That is when we realized the grafted tomatoes were resistant to the disease," she added.
Since adopting the grafting technology, she has regained confidence after finding what she believes is a lasting solution to the destructive tomato wilt disease.
"It took 75 days for me to start harvesting grafted tomatoes, which was the same period as for the non-grafted ones. However, the non-grafted plants stopped producing much earlier, while I continued harvesting the grafted ones for a longer period," Rono said.
According to project scientists from Egerton University, 18 demonstration sites have been established across Kenya, showcasing advanced tomato grafting technology.
At these demonstration centers, participating farmers cultivate grafted crops and achieve a sustained six-month harvest period during each planting season.
Like Rono, hundreds of farmers participating in the project are expecting bumper harvests in the coming weeks. ■
