Indigenous crops take centre stage in drive to beat climate change

Farmers during training on value addition at the Kenya Industrial Research Development Institute, Kisumu. [Rachael Kibui, Standard]

Famers have been urged to embrace indigenous crops as a way of increasing access to diversified diets and ensuring productivity in the wake of climate change.

Over the years, in Kenya, monocropping of crops such as maize, and limited diet options have become common at the expense of traditional varieties, which are rich in nutrients and adaptive to local climate.

For the last two years, Seed Savers Network (SSN) in collaboration with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture), has been working with over 450 farmers from Kisumu and Vihiga towards promoting, conserving and sustainably using Neglected and Underutilised crop Species (NUS).

This collaboration took place under the umbrella of the Resilient Seed Systems Initiative coordinated by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality of the Netherlands, and FAO’s Benefit Sharing funded project dubbed Enabling and Scaling Open Source Seed Systems for Climate Change Adaptation in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

Activities targeted the value chain development of priority NUS through pilot work in Kisumu and Vihiga Counties.

“The activities emphasised producing novel, nutritious composite flours using crops like traditional leafy vegetables (amaranth), cassava, millets, yellow maize, beans, groundnuts, soya beans, and sorghum, aimed at specific consumer groups such as adults, individuals with diabetes, and babies who are malnourished,” said Mercy Ambani, projects officer at SSN.

She added that the composite flours provided an alternative to maize-only flour, which is a traditional staple in Kenya.

Maize production in the country and across eastern and southern Africa at large is severely affected by the impacts of climate change.

“We have been well trained on NUS seed production and saving and will continue with this practice beyond the project’s implementation period,” said John Obuom, a farmer.

He recalled the olden days when composite flour of cassava, sorghum and finger millet formed an integral part of family diets.

With modernisation, Obuom noted these foods have been replaced with conventional diets at the expense of both culture and nutrition.

Amid increasing cases of lifestyle diseases like cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, farmers are readily willing to go back to indigenous crops and growing healthier crops.

“I am very happy to have learnt about conical gardens because I can now produce ample vegetables for my family as well as for sale,” said Rose Achieng’, another farmer.

By producing more than her family needs, she added, she will not only be food secure, but enhance the same for other families while earning income.

She was among the 12 farmers who were recently trained on value addition at the Kenya Industrial Research Development Institute (KIRDI) in Kisumu.

The farmers were mainly trained on value-adding vegetables through drying. “During the rainy season, vegetable production is usually high and demand low. When its dry, the demand is high while production is low,” noted Achieng’.

With value addition, farmers can now maximise production during the peak season and dry the vegetables to preserve for consumption and sale when production is low and demand high.

Achieng’ adds that she has already saved about two kilograms of jute mallow (murenda) seeds and she is currently multiplying cow peas (kunde) seeds.

With ease in accessing seeds, she adds that she will no longer be limited to planting selected crops and will also not have to spend money on buying seeds from the market as she used to do before.

In total, SSN supported the set-up of 12 conical gardens at Kabudi Agoro and Nyando community seed banks in Kisumu.

Seed bank members were also trained in how to set up kitchen gardens. Kitchen gardening does not only enhance access to food, but also saves money and time, and enhances proper utilisation of small spaces.

“We jointly with farmers, planted 16 indigenous fruit trees at both Nyando and Kabudi Agoro seed banks, including wild olive, custard apple, tamarind, jackfruit, moringa, mango and Marula,” said Ambani, adding that the next steps will be to conduct trainings on marketing and financial management.

With all aspects covered from seed production to value addition to marketing, farmers will be well empowered to sustainably grow NUS, and add value, for example by drying vegetables and milling cereals and cassava flours, and marketing the produce.

Plans are underway to get the NUS production by the farmers certified by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS).

“This novel approach piloted in Kenya of combining the conservation efforts of community seed banks with value addition activities of NUS crops, contributes to the sustainability and resilience of farming communities,” said Ronnie Vernooy, collaborating senior scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.