Farmers turn to indigenous seed banks as Kenya restricts informal trade

MUKAWA, Kenya — The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognized “African indigenous knowledge systems” as smart adaptation strategies against worsening climate change.

Mary Wangari, a farmer from central Kenya, has known this for years.

Her 2-acre farm in Mukawa village has healthy varieties of fruits and vegetables like arrowroot, avocado, spinach, onions, and even maize, growing with ease. For the last 10 years, she has been farming indigenous crop varieties — those that experts describe as “open-pollinated,” referring to genetically diverse plants that are pollinated by insects, birds, the wind, human hands, or other natural mechanisms.

“I never miss a harvest when I plant indigenous seeds because they are early maturing. I always get something from my crop, whether it rains or not,” Wangari said.

She often propagates and stores her seed for planting. When a certain variety is lacking, she sources it from fellow farmers by bartering for their seeds with what she has.

But Wangari said she is fearful that this practice will have to end, as a law introduced by the government has placed restrictions on the informal seed system, in a bid to ensure that all seeds sold or distributed in the country have been certified.

Veronica Ndetu, climate change coordinator at Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Co-operatives, said the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act criminalizes the propagation and exchange of uncertified seeds to prevent so-called biopiracy and the spread of seed-borne pests and diseases.

Ndetu said Kenya is still food-insecure, hence the need to protect its food systems by certifying the seeds that farmers can grow on their farms. According to her, distribution of seeds that have not been certified can worsen an already fragile food system.

“The government does not prevent the farmer from using seed that they have saved themselves. But they should not trade or distribute seed that has not been certified,” she said.

However, small-scale farmers in Africa rely on informal systems for 90% of their seeds. Farmers in Kenya said the law is now forcing them to purchase costly hybrid seeds, as they would need to go through a rigorous and costly certification process to legally share other seeds.

Anne Maina, national coordinator at the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya, said the law also gives government seed inspectors the power to enter a farmer’s field to see if they are in violation.

Breaking the law is punishable by a fine of up to 20,000 Kenyan shillings ($170), a jail term, or both, she said.

Josphine Makena, a farmer from Muiru village in central Kenya, said hybrid seeds are not cost-effective: She can only plant them for one crop season and cannot reproduce them for all planting cycles like she did with her indigenous seeds. She added that local sellers offer hybrid seeds that require the heavy application of chemicals and fertilizers.

“Leaders who brought us these seeds told us that they would help in boosting food harvests. Instead, they have worsened poverty in our homes, because some of these seeds do not germinate. And when they do, they do not produce,” she said.

Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, an independent policy expert, said hybrid seeds are susceptible to new pests and diseases, responsible for the mass killing of pollinators like honeybees, and linked to declining harvests in Africa’s food systems, while also lacking valuable nutrients.

“The seeds cannot survive when there are inadequate rains because they require a lot of water to grow,” she said. “Farmers can lose a whole crop because hybrid seeds lack resilience due to their genetic uniformity.”

Million Belay, the general coordinator at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, said farmers need to start challenging institutions that are promoting supposedly improved seeds, chemicals, and fertilizers.

“These institutions have tricked the world into thinking Africa cannot produce food without pumping chemicals in the soil, using high-yielding varieties, and reorienting agriculture to its markets,” he said.

As an alternative, the Grow Biointensive Agriculture Center of Kenya, a local nonprofit, is helping farmers establish community seed banks, where farmers can save indigenous varieties. G-BIACK Director Samuel Nderitu said the charity, which was established in 2008, works with over 100 groups representing over 20,000 farmers from different communities in Kenya.

By training farmers to identify and collect indigenous seed varieties that are disappearing, G-BIACK aims to establish 10 seed banks and collect over 2,000 endangered varieties by the end of the year.

 Nderitu said food systems have been commercialized and no longer serve smallholder farmers. “We want to change that so that people can grow food.”