Crop monitoring in Kenya, Apr 2007, vol. 01
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Overall, the 2007 maize crop season started on time in Kenya with some districts mainly in Eastern Province (Kitui, Njtchi and Makueni) where the climatic conditions were favorable for a one month earlier maize planting (Figure 1). At the same time there are some pockets with a delay of one month maize planting in the Central and Rift Valley provinces. The areas in Rift Valley with delay of planting will be monitored closely during the coming months due the importance of this province in the total national production (55%).
The early rainfall estimated by the ECMWF model in Turkana district will be favorable for the sorghum areas and for the pastoralists of this district.
The results of the water balance model lead to a very good maize yield forecast for 2007 crop season in Kenya (Figure 6, page 3).