With the realities of climate change that has negatively impacted on food production globally, state-owned Kenya Seed Company has over the recent years been working on ensuring it avails to farmers seeds that are adaptable to unpredictable weather.
Change in rain patterns is one of the major challenge that farmers are facing today, but Kenya Seed how now come up with a variety of seeds that will guarantee good returns in different areas.
The company has categorized the country in five different regions – lowlands, medium altitude, transitional and high altitude areas – all with different seed varieties for various crops.
“We have seeds that withstand dry areas. For maize farmers in medium altitude areas 513 and 516 are the best varieties as they mature in three months and can withstand drought together with 571,” says James Mudogo, a Kenya Seed officer from Kapsabet, Nandi County.
He spoke at the University of Eldoret Agribusiness Trade Fair which was making a return after Covid-19 disruption.
For transitional areas – which are neither lowlands or high altitude areas, Mudogo says 520, 624 and 519 are the best variety of maize seeds.
They take three to four month to mature, depending on the climate.
“That is what the company has put in place to address climate change now that rains are limited and not well spread,” notes Mudogo.
Aside from maize seeds, Kenya Seed also produces seeds for other crops among them beans, wheat, sorghum, pyrethrum as well as grass for livestock and vegetables.
This is in a bid to align with the growing demand for farmers to embrace diversification and focus more on engaging in Agribusiness.
Fake seeds
But even as the state-owned company endeavors to avail quality seeds to farmers, there has always been a challenge of unscrupulous traders that supplying fake seeds to farmers on pretense of being from Kenya Seed.
To address this challenge, the company says it has partnered with Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) to come up with a platform where a farmer can verify the seeds he/she buys from a supplier.
All seeds from from Kenya Seed come with a concealed number that can be send to the number 1393 via SMS to confirm if it is genuine or not.
The SMS is free.
Further, farmers have been encouraged to purchase the seeds from registered and accredited stockists and suppliers.
