Tomatoes cooked together with cabbages have been and still remain a super quick, easy, and delicious vegetable side dish dinner for most Kenyans. One needs a handful of simple ingredients to put it together, and it can be consumed by all, from meat lovers to vegetarians. Kenya has over 300 varieties of tomatoes, and the Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) is still improving and breeding new ones.
They are currently working on identifying the best irrigation practices for tomato production.
Dr. Lusike Wasilwa, Director of Crop Systems at Kalro, said the production of tomatoes is critical in a country where each household consumes the vegetable in at least two meals every day.
Wasilwa expressed fears that the over 500,000 tomato farmers in Kenya could not meet the local demand due to poor seed varieties impacting low yields, which still stand at 8.8 metric tons (MT) per acre against a potential of 20 MT per acre. Dr. Wasilwa said the deficit has forced the country to bridge the shortfalls with imports from Tanzania, Uganda, the DRC, and Ethiopia.
"Production of tomatoes is largely constrained by the high cost of certified seeds, limited skills in seed establishment, pests and diseases, poor post-harvest management practices, and low technology adoption rates among the smallholder farmers who are the majority of producers," Dr. Wasilwa told KNA.
Kalro had been holding an Open Week Exhibition at all its institutes and centers from February 14th to March 7th, 2025, showcasing research, technologies, and solutions for sustainable agriculture, with a focus on innovation.
Dr. Lusike Wasilwa
During the exhibition, various private companies that have collaborated with Kalro joined in to showcase some of their innovations.
Sakata Seeds is one such company that had the opportunity to display a very large range of products and showcase the quality and yield of various varieties during the Kalro Kandara farmers' day last week.
Speaking to KNA, Angus Douglas Hamilton, the regional representative for Sakata in East Africa, said they have started a tomato breeding program specifically for Africa and are developing some varieties in their breeding stations across the world.
Buena Vista F1, a tomato variety they are promoting for the East African and West African regions with the trial site at KALRO, has just been released in Kenya.
"It is an excellent new variety with large fruit. It has disease resistance to tomato spotted wilt virus and tomato yellow leaf curl virus, two of the problems that have been faced by farmers in the Loitokitok region of the country where tomatoes are grown on a large scale," Hamilton said.
He explained that apart from the Buena Vista variety having large-sized fruits, they are very solid and firm, thus giving them an excellent shelf life and allowing them to reach the market without any damage.
He added that the yield is also extremely high, with lots of large fruits, which is something the market wants.
"We are very excited to launch this variety into the Kenyan market and look forward to hearing what the feedback will be from the farmers," said Hamilton.
Most breeders, he said, are focusing more on climate change with an understanding that they will have to produce fruits that can survive hotter, drier zones or even wetter, more disease-ridden zones and also come up with solutions for farmers.
"It takes time to breed these varieties. A new tomato may take up to 10 to 12 years to produce. It is extremely difficult for breeders to produce new varieties fast enough to keep up with climate change," he added.
Other important crops that Sakata is also working on, Hamilton said, are butternuts and cabbages.
"Butternut is something which is extremely high yielding, very nutritious, and something which I think farmers can rely on more and more," he said.
In Kenya, the old-fashioned 'Malenge' is still on the market, he explained, but nowadays more people are moving towards butternut because they are high yielding, tastier, and have better storage.
As for the cabbages, Hamilton talked about a new variety, PowerSlam F1, which they have also launched in the country specifically for the African region.
There are over 400 different varieties of cabbage grown throughout the world. The reason why the PowerSlam F1 is expected to be successful, he noted, is that it is extremely uniform, high-yielding, and fills completely, with virtually no air gaps, making the cabbage dense and ideal for transportation.
The PowerSlam F1 cabbage, he explained, is also tolerant against black rot, a common issue that causes cabbages to rot in the field. One of the key things that farmers and brokers are looking for, Hamilton said, is a cabbage that will survive long distances, such as from Kakamega all the way to Mombasa, and arrive at the marketplace intact despite the heat.
Hamilton stated that the PowerSlam F1 cabbage matures faster than average, taking around 85 days, or even 80 days, depending on the weather. In terms of weight, it averages three to three and a half kilos.
"What is interesting is that we have other varieties of cabbages that will grow to five kilos or eight kilos and others even larger, but brokers prefer those that will fit as many as possible in their trucks, thus they want the medium size," he said.
Sakata Seeds is renowned globally for its role in breeding new varieties of food crops such as tomatoes, red onions, cabbages, butternuts, and chilies that, once introduced into the environment, address pest challenges and are high-yielding, providing farmers with good income.
Meanwhile, tomato production is estimated to contribute more than Sh15 billion annually to the Kenyan economy, providing income to producers and food to the country's population, while the annual area under cabbage cultivation in Kenya is about 600,000 tons.
Source: Kenya News Agency