The productivity of Napier grass in the East Africa is threatened by stunt and head-smut diseases. For head-smut, a study was carried out to determine biomass yield and forage quality of head-smut resistant/tolerant Napier grass accessions, in the high and lowland environments of Kenya. A field study was undertaken between 2011 and 2013 at two contrasting environments: the first in the highlands at KALRO-Muguga (altitude 2,052 metres above sea level), while the second was in the lowlands at KALRO-Katumani (altitude 1,600 masl). Accession no. 16806 was confirmed resistant to head-smut disease, while accession nos. 16783, 16796 and 16835 were tolerant to head-smut disease in glasshouse screening/molecular studies (https://doi.org/10.4314/acsj.v24i1.18S)

For Napier grass stunt, caused by a phytoplasma, a study was conducted to identify resistance/tolerance among 65 Napier grass accessions using loop-mediated isothermal amplification of DNA (LAMP) over a period of three months. Most Napier grass accessions were susceptible to the disease except plants belonging to accession 16789 which were negative by LAMP. Accession 16807 was found to be tolerant with 60% of plants positive by LAMP and 90% of plants symptomless. Accessions 16822 and 16817 had moderate tolerance with one and two plants positive by LAMP, respectively. Accession 16812 was slightly tolerant with 58.3% of plants positive by LAMP and 33.3% of the plants showing symptom remission in the second re-growth (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropro.2017.02.005)