How we’re getting to the root of a global pest threatening potatoes in East Africa

Demand for potatoes in eastern Africa has been growing steadily, achieving an annual growth of 3.1% between 1993 and 2020. This growth is driven in part by rising demand from the fast food industry and for processing into high value products such as crisps, chips and starch. Despite an increase of 60% in the area of cultivated land, production has been declining from an average of 20 tonnes a hectare to around 9.1 in Rwanda, 8.6 in Kenya and 4.3 in Uganda. This is way below the potential production of 40 tonnes a hectare. Farmers are thus being denied much-needed income and food. The factors contributing to the low and declining yields include losses due to attack by a range of pests and diseases. A second main reason is the repeated cropping of potato on the same land without rotation. Third is the use of poor quality or substandard seed, partly due to limited availability of certified high quality seed. Potato cyst nematodes are the most recent pest threat to emerge in the ...