Maize seeds. Kenya is among 18 countries that are set to benefit from Sh50 billion seed upgrade project. [Photo: ucdavis.edu]
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa says Kenya will be among 18 countries in Africa that will benefit from a Sh50 billion seed production and distribution project.Alliance President Agnes Kalibata has said that the five-year project will ensure more farmers access improved and drought tolerant seed varieties to help boost food production, according to the Star.Kalibata noted that for the last decade, many seed varieties have been developed in Africa but many farmers do not access them due to long distance between the farm and nearby seed-dealers."A decade ago, farmers had to travel 50 kilometres or more to access new seed varieties but today, the distance has been shortened to 6 kilometres. We want to further reduce it to two or four kilometres," said Kalibata on Wednesday, as quoted by the Star.At the same time, AGRA Vice President Joseph Devries, who is in charge of programme development and innovation, said that despite the huge investment in the seed sector, the uptake of improved seed varieties in the continent is still minimal hence the low production leading to food insecurity."The adoption of improved seeds by small scale farmers in Africa is between 20 and 30 percent. Farmers are still recycling old varieties that are prone to new diseases and pests. Our focus is to increase the adoption rate to be between 50 and 60 percent in order to realize the desired agriculture transformation in Africa," said Decries.The duo spoke in Nairobi during the launch of a new book on the growth of Africa’s seed sector in the last 10 years.