Maize in Kenya

Jamlick Mwathi, Bayer Crop Science, Kenya

1. Why did you use tricot?

We use tricot because of the benefits you get from understanding your customer (farmer) that we use to develop breeding strategies and to identify the gaps that need to be taken care of.

2. What lessons did you learn using tricot?

We learned that tricot gives insights on important traits, e.g. maize grain size and colour. We always considered yield to be more important, so we were surprised at the results and have since integrated these attributes into our breeding program.

3. What new insights about maize did you get from the trials?

We were amazed to find that farmers chose a hybrid that we did not think was the best based on our criteria in the breeding program and thus we decided to include it in the program. We liked how tricot helped profile varieties with a micro-environmental focus. For instance, the performance of a hybrid in two areas that we thought was the same was actually very different. In this way, tricot helps you showcase your product in the best area for it.

4. What can you advise people who want to use tricot?

I would tell people that with tricot you will get benefits that you cannot get with other methods. In breeding we need to appeal to the customer and tricot helps profile the needs and gaps of farmers, identifies the challenges and what can you do to address them in the breeding program. It is even very useful for seed companies.

5. Do you think the tricot approach is appropriate for variety evaluation and release?

Yes, it is appropriate. The information we got on grain size and colour could not have come easily without tricot, and this helped us modulate our maize breeding strategy. Tricot really informs breeders about the gaps that are not obvious.

6. What challenges need to be addressed?

Overall, there are some areas where improvements could be made. For example there were some problems using the software, but they were easily addressed with the help of technical support.