Who Can Share Seeds? As Counterfeits Hurt African Farmers, It’s a Growing Question
Tucked away in a lush, forested area of central Kenya’s Kikuyu town, the National Seed Bank stands as a crucial safeguard for the future of the country’s agriculture. Inside two chilly rooms of a government building, more than 50,000 seed varieties are cataloged and stored.
The bank was established in 1988 after the realization that some traditional varieties of seeds were being lost, an occurrence that is becoming more common with climate change. It aims to conserve seeds for research and reintroduction to farms.
“We realize that some of the traditional varieties that we had abandoned then are actually more resilient to climate change, so when you introduce them especially in marginal areas, those varieties outperform the improved varieties,” said the director of the Genetic Resources Research Institute that operates the bank, Desterio Nyamongo, referring to hybrid seeds that must be bought every planting season.