Allow farmers to register own seed varieties

Different varieties of indigenous cereals are on display. [File, Standard]

Seed is the fundamental and most important input for agricultural production. The type and diversity of seeds available will also determine the diversity of food available on our plates and ultimately our diets and health status. "We are what we eat".

For centuries, farmers in Africa have skillfully selected their own seeds and planting materials through a system now dubbed the 'informal sector' or more recently, 'farmer-managed seed system'.

They save seeds from one harvest and share them within their social networks and communities. As a result, farmers in Africa hold and conserve a high diversity of seeds and crops. In fact, this seed system constitutes over 80 per cent of the seed supply in most of Africa.

In this system, women play a critical role in conserving, managing, and maintaining diversity and its related indigenous knowledge passed on from generation to generation. Farmers' seed systems not only offer a private value to the farmer but also a public value through contributing to the conservation and evolution of genetic resources that are continuously adapting to climate change and pests and diseases and are therefore a repository for genetic traits needed for breeding.

Farmers' varieties form the basis of many new and improved varieties released through the formal breeding systems as certified seed or hybrid seeds in a system dubbed 'formal system'. The principles of the formal systems are to maintain a variety identity and produce seeds of high genetic purity with very high-quality standards free from pests and diseases.

The distribution of certified seeds takes place through a well-organised intricate system of variety development which involves selection and breeding, seed production, quality assurance and certification and distribution through seed companies and retail outlets known as 'agro-vets'.

However, many farmers cannot access this diversity for various reasons. The seeds are costly and often require inputs in form of fertilisers and pesticides which are also expensive. The transaction costs of acquiring these seeds are often high because farmers have to travel from their localities to towns where there are 'agro-vets' in order to purchase the seeds and they also have to acquire the related information regarding the seeds from other sources - this implicitly increases the cost of the seeds making it difficult to access by a majority of poor smallholder farmers.

Most importantly, improved varieties provide high yields yet, smallholder farmers are better off with yield stability over longer periods of time. Most fundamentally the formal sector provides a narrow base of inter and intra-specific diversity needed for a robust food system.

In Kenya, for example, the formal sector is mainly catering to large and medium commercial farmers who constitute on 25 percent of the farmers. Furthermore, the formal sector's breeding efforts provide for a few major crops mainly maize, rice wheat, cash crops such as tea, pyrethrum coffee, Irish potatoes and sunflower.

Recently, community seedbanks (CSBs) have become a popular and critical element of farmer-managed seed systems. They act as seed stores that provide a diversity of crops that are not otherwise available in the formal seed system.

However, access to this diversity is only limited to local communities where seedbanks exist and to a loan system. This is also because the Kenyan seed regulations specifically the Seeds and Plants Act Cap 326 of 2012 prohibit farmers from sharing, exchanging, or selling uncertified and unregistered seeds.

One way to recognise and protect these farmers' varieties is through their registration and subsequent commercialisation. This will also encourage further conservation through use.

The writer is a genetic resources and food security policy specialist