Maize has become Africa's second most important food crop after cassava. Maize is Kenya's staple food and is grown by about 90% of rural households. Among the pests and disease, stem borers are considered to be the most serious insect pests and ear rot the most important disease. A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) was carried out in Malakisi and Sirisia Divisions of Bungoma County, Western Kenya (N00°68.824 -N00°78.641 and E34°38.076 -E34°55.604). The PRA involved focused group discussions and 100 questionnaires were used in each Division to gather information from maize farmers. The focused groups consisted of the males and females who had engaged in maize production for at least 5 years. The two Divisions were perceived to have different levels of ear rot causing fungi because of different agro-ecological zones. This determined the farmers' knowledge on the relationship between maize ear rot and stem borer damage, yield losses and farmer's livelihoods. Farmers put 54% of their farms under maize production with mean yields of 9.8bags/acre and 10.9bags/acre for Malakisi and Sirisia Divisions respectively. Most farmers planted maize early 78% and 83% for Malakisi and Sirisia. The use of certified seeds especially hybrids was high in both Divisions with Malakisi 74% while Sirisia had 84%. Only 63% and 66% of the population for Malakisi and Sirisia respectively were food secure. The yields per unit area is far less than the potential due low levels of inorganic fertilizer use and unexploited organic manure utilization. But the government intervention/subsidy through National accelerated agricultural input and access programme (NAAIAP) programme in both Divisions realized significant increase in the yields of 20-30 bags /acre). All farmers affirmed knowing both maize stem borers and ear rot. The occurrence of stem borers was 16% in long rain season while 84% in short rains season. There were No stem borer tolerant varieties with farmers, local stockists and traders. Farmers in Malakisi 46% and Sirisia 37% recognized the relationship as a pathway between stem borer damage and ear rot incidence. Some farmers and traders admix their maize grains with Malakisi 25% and Sirisia 13%. Rotten ears are used as livestock, poultry feeds, local brews and human food during hunger months. Coupled with the high number of traditional stores which are grass thatched and dilapidated, this predisposes the populace to mycotoxins associated with ear rot posing a health risk.

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea) is a leguminous food crop in Kenya, whose yields are probably affected by Peanut stripe virus (PStV) belonging to the genus Potyvirus and family Potyviridae, that causes Peanut stripe disease (PSD), also referred to as groundnut stripe disease (GSD). PSD/GSD is rapidly spread through seed and mechanically transmitted in a nonpersistent manner by aphid vectors causing 30-100% decrease in production. Different isolates of PStV induce different symptoms in groundnut ranging from striping, ring spots, vein banding and oakleaf mosaic. PStV occurrence in Kenya has neither been reported nor its resistance identified in commercial cultivars of groundnut in research stations. This informs the need for resistance breeding programmes of wild genotypes to be explored as the only practical solution. This study reports the first occurrence, distribution and molecular detection of PStV infecting groundnut in western Kenya, which is crucial in developing appropriate crop protection and plant health management strategies for this new disease. A survey of PSD was conducted in western Kenya among the four counties of Bungoma, Busia, Kisumu and Kisii during the short rains season of 2019. A total of 14 symptomatic leaf samples were selected from the collected samples and preserved until use. Total RNA was extracted from the symptomatic leaf samples using GeneJET Plant RNA Purification Mini Kit according to the manufacturers' protocol. Two-step RT-PCR detection of PStV was done using specific primers that yielded the expected 454 bp. DNA libraries were prepared and sequenced using the Sanger sequencing platform, but produced poor quality sequences after performing sequence quality check using BioEdit workbench that based on the low quality peaks of the electropherograms generated, therefore recommend for further research. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the occurrence, distribution and molecular diagnostics of PStV in Kenya. Further studies are needed to assess the molecular and biological diversity of PStV strains, the spatial distribution and the incidence of this emerging groundnut disease in Kenya.