Seed Savers Network , Kenya

Gilgil , Kenya

An Overview Of Our Solution

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Suburban

Rural

Organization type

Nirlaba

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Grasslands

Population impacted

40000

Size of agricultural area

8000ha

Production quantity

ex. 4000 ton

People employed

ex. 4800

Describe your solution

SSN has created a data base of small scale seed producers who conserve seeds for local crops and make them available to the market. A growing database with over 2000 farmers supply propagation materials for crops such cassava, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes, yams, arrowroot, fruit seedlings, local vegetables and rare crops such as chia seeds to mention but a few. All the farmers in our data base are vetted and trained to ensure production of high quality and clean seeds. SSN has a network of 40 seed banks in 40 villages each seed bank acting as a source of local seeds in that village. A network of small holder seed suppliers connected through the data base is growing. These farmers located in different villages make affordable seeds available in the correct quality and quantities. A seed catalogue listing the available seeds for sale is maintained and regularly updated. Clients interested in buying the seeds in the catalogue call the SSN and SSN call the farmer who organize the supply and get paid by SSN. Seed fairs and seed banks enhance seed trade within the village while marketing through the media guarantee seed trade between villages and across the country. SSN will partner with Egerton University to ensuring that farmers register their seeds to guarantee continues use and facilitate benefit sharing

Describe your implementation

So far SSN have managed to reach over 40,000 farmers on seed saving and agro biodiversity conservation. We have also established more than 40 community seeds banks and revived more than 30 varieties of local beans and we maintain a data base of farmers who supply propagation materials for various indigenous crops including cassava, sweat potatoes yams, arrowroots, pulses and cereals. SSN farmers training centre has a certified nursery that serve to supply the local communities with fruit seedling and as a demonstration on nursery management and establishment SSN target customers are small scale farmers interested in diverse seeds or plating materials some of which not available in the conventional farmers stores. The seeds must be logistically available and affordable to the small holder farmer SSN business model is filling the gap left by conventional seed companies that side-line small scale farmers by making seeds too expensive or by avoiding some planting materials such as cuttings and seedling because they are difficult to handle SSN call for seed delivery services is convenient, affordable, and efficient while the seeds are diverse to satisfy everyone demands. All the seeds are produced and processed by the farmers. The organisation facilitates seed trade among the farming communities for conservation of agro-biodiversity - Specific activities and/or specifically what your solution does to address the identified problems above in the Context Analysis section - How you ensured your solution was adopted and promoted change in human activities - Enabling conditions - Key success factors - Any obstacles and how you overcame them

External connections

We are working with partners such as seed program international of the US, in improving access to seeds amongst the small holder farmers and Tudor trust of UK in building farmers capacity to produce save and use local seeds in Nakuru county. Seed savers network is working in close partnership with government agencies such as KARO, Kenya bio-safety authority and KEPHIS where we participate in various forums including giving input on proposed policies and participating in trainings. We are also members of PELUM

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

loss of Agro-biodiversity is one major problem facing Kenyan farmers. some of the indicators to the loss include regular need for relief food when maize crop fails, high cost of cultural food crops such yams and cassava, and absence of cultural food crops seeds in the farmers stores. The main losses in agro-biodiversity is in terms of varieties where for example all the open pollinated varieties of maize have virtually disappeared. farmers are also unable to cultivate some crops due to lack of supply of clean seeds.The crop areas under crops such as yams, arrowroot, and cassava is on steep decline owing to poor access to planting materials as they are not stocked by the mainstream seed companies.

Describe the context in which you are operating

In Kenya Food insecurity has increased in recent years as evidenced by regular need for relief food supply when maize crop fails. Loss of indigenous knowledge in seed saving and production has lead to drastic reduction of indigenous food security crops and loss of agro biodiversity.
Small seed enterprises are the best way of ensuring the availability and quality of non-hybrid seeds for food and feed crops in developing countries, said FAO in a policy guide published 1 March 2011, in Rome
. In recent years, however, Kenyan government reduced public investment in the seed sector, the expectation being that the private sector would fill the gap.
In many cases, especially for food security crops, this has not happened as medium and large seed companies tend to concentrate on producing hybrid seed for high value crops grown by larger farmers and market them to more promising, large scale farmers. The majority of poor smallholder farmers growing food security crops such as sorghum, millet and cassava rely on self or open-pollinated seeds or crops that are propagated through dividing bulbs, or taking cuttings stored from previous harvests and grafting them

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

Language(s)

English, Swahili, Gikuyu, TBD

Water

500 characters max.

Food Security/Nutrition

Improved seed access of different species has not only improved food security with more farmers accessing affordable seeds and saving their own seeds from the previous harvests. This means timely planting and improved food security

Economic/Sustainable Development

The project has created sustainable income for the farmers as they specialize in the supply of special seeds such cassava cuttings, sweet potatoes vines, banana suckers and field beans to mention a few

Climate

Use of diverse locally adopted crop varieties is the an important measure to ensure resilience and to safe guard crop failures as a result of climate change.

Sustainability

To replicate the program, you need trained extension officers who will vet, recruit and build capacity of the farmers on seed production and processing. Recruited farmers join the data base and a network of seed suppliers. A catalogue is developed for the planting materials available. Seed fairs are conducted in the villages to display seeds and some coverage on the media also helps. Initial set up require some grants but the program run on market revenue when farmers start selling the seeds

Return on investment

It is an efficient model where with high return to investment. The only investment done is capacity building to the farmers while land and seeds are available

Entrant Image

How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

The program has two components. Components one is seed trade relying on market based revenue and component 2 capacity building and mobilization relying on grant.

Overview