BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO IMPROVE HORTICULTURAL CROP PRODUCTION

Food supply and security are major concerns in Kenya, like in any other developing country. The resource poor smallholder farmers dominate agricultural food systems in the country, constituting about 75%. Production of horticultural crops plays a major role in food, employment and income generation in Kenya. Therefore, modern technologies and/or methodologies for improvement of horticulture production and enhancement of increased food security will be of benefit to farmers. Biotechnology is considered in many cases to be that technology which will offer solutions to horticultural production constraints. Plant biotechnology involves three major areas: in vitro propagation and tissue culture for production of disease-free plants, use of molecular markers for improved selection in plant breeding, and genetic engineering. Though tissue culture techniques have been applied in Kenya for a while, molecular markers and genetic engineering techniques are quite new. However, marker-assisted selection and transgenic crops are being developed for important crops in Kenya.

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