Farmers in Nakuru County and the larger high potential regions in the country are set to benefit from new seed varieties that are being developed at Egerton University’s Agro-Science Park.
According to the manager of the park Prof Paul Kimurto, the university has received a grant of USD 150,000 which is equivalent to Sh13 million from the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to facilitate the expansion of Seed and Variety Development Unit Centre (SVUDC) at the park.
Prof Kimurto told this writer on Wednesday that the unit aims at promoting and commercialising new high yielding crop varieties to farmers in Nakuru County and the country at large. He added that the two year grant will assist in expanding the production of three bean varieties already in commercial production namely; Tasha, Chelang and Ciankui.
“Egerton University could be the only research centre and institute of higher learning in Kenya and the whole of East and Central Africa that has so far managed to have its developed varieties distributed and marketed to farmers in required packs and qualities,” he said.
The Agro-Science Park is one of the university’s vision 2030 flagship projects that aim at collaborating with stakeholders in the agro-products industry in the country and internationally to transform the industry.
Already, the university has entered into an agreement with a publishing company for an agri-business magazine titled Seeds of Gold.