Kenyan farmers file court case against seed sharing ban

Kenya’s National Seed Bank stores more than 50,000 varieties of seed.

Founded in 1988, the facility has the goal of protecting seeds for research and reintroduction to farms.

The centre has become all the more important in the face of climate change, which has led to some traditional varieties being lost

Desterio Nyamongo, Director of Genetic Resources Research Institute, says, "we realize that some of the traditional varieties that we had abandoned them are actually more resilient to climate change, so when you introduce them especially in marginal areas, those varieties outperform the improved varieties and therefore famers find them very useful."

Some farmers argue that a 2012 law barring seed sharing has hampered efforts to improve the country’s seed system.

Among them is Francis Ngiri.

"I am practicing agro-ecology (organic farming) or that type of farming without using chemicals. That is what we have been practicing and also, I am also saving my own seeds. Indigenous seeds," Ngiri says.

For the director of the National Seed Bank, farmers who cannot afford fertilisers needed for hybrid seeds should plant traditional varieties.

"It would be wrong for farmers, especially farmers in marginal areas, to start thinking that using the indigenous seed is backward. Far from it, because some of the indigenous varieties have adapted over time to the local conditions and therefore, they are more resilient," Nyamongo says.

Seed sharing in Kenya is punishable by two years in prison or a fine; more than a dozen farmers have filed a case to challenge the law.