January - June 2008 - Kenya Agricultural Research Institute

National Genebank of Kenya Hosts National Stakeholders’ Workshop
on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA)
By P.W. Wambugu and Z.K. Muthamia, National Genebank of Kenya
Farming throughout the world is underpinned by
the vast genetic diversity of agricultural
plants. This diversity, if well managed and conserved,
has long been viewed as an important vehicle towards
achieving food security. These resources are also a core
to livelihoods and every effort should be made to
sustainably use and conserve them. This therefore calls
not only for well planned conservation and management
strategies but also for well formulated policies. In an effort
to achieve this objective, FAO commissioned several
studies dealing with PGRFA in the country. In order to
share results and experiences from the various projects,
the National Genebank of Kenya hosted a national
stakeholders’ workshop held in Nakuru from 11 th – 14 th
June 2008.
The workshop was officially opened by Agriculture
Secretary, Dr. W. Songa on behalf of the Permanent
Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture. While noting the
importance of PGRFA, he underscored the need for plant
genetic resources to be properly conserved and shared.
He noted that PGRFA provide the biological basis for food
security and supports the livelihoods of the nation’s
population. At the same time, he noted that PGR serve as
the plant breeders most important raw materials and the
farmers most essential input into agriculture. While
recognizing and appreciating the efforts played by KARI
in conserving germplasm, he regretted that the country
had lost important germplasm.
The Agriculture Secretary recognised the importance
of the workshop as its discussions and deliberations are
important in fighting poverty and hunger. He informed
the participants that in order to fight hunger and
economically empower the populace, the government had
put in place several strategies. Currently, Dr. Songa noted
that the Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (2004 – 2014)
was the most important as it feeds into Vision 2030 which
The Agriculture Secretary, Dr. W. Songa (left) chats with
some of the workshop participants
has 3 pillars: Economic, social and governance. He
observed that in spite of the importance played by PGR in
the process of agricultural production, insufficient and
poor documentation of data on the same has hampered
optimal conservation, access and use.
The workshop agenda revolved around 5 key issues
namely:
• Access to Seeds in Rural Livelihoods
• Strategic assessment on the state of PGRFA in Kenya
• Role of markets in promoting sustainable utilization
of plant genetic resources
• National Information Sharing Mechanism on PGRFA
• Mainstreaming gender consideration into National
Seed Programmes and Policies in Kenya
The workshop drew attendance of a total of 40
participants representing about 25 stakeholder institutes
among them public universities, national and international
research institutes, ministry of agriculture, extension
service providers and NGOs.
The workshop noted that over 90% of the seed of
especially traditional, neglected and under utilised.
crops is sourced from the informal seed sector. Ironically,
while the informal seed sector is the greatest source of
seeds, farmers in some regions considered the quality of
these seeds as FAIR while those from the formal sector as
GOOD. Other gaps identified as being a hindrance to
small scale farmers accessing seeds include limited
collection and conservation of traditional/indigenous
crops and plant species which play important role in food
security and nutrition in rural areas, weak linkages
between conservation and utilization of PGR and lack of
capacity by current generation of rural poor small scale
farmers to characterise, conserve, evaluate and
sustainably use PGR to increase food security and
agricultural production. Additionally, despite women
playing a key role in the informal seed sector, their
involvement in national seed policy and programs is very
limited. Seed regulations do not also support the
development of informal seed sector in areas of
production, processing, maintenance, exchange and
marketing.
During its deliberations, the workshop identified some
policy issues that need to be addressed key among them:
• Establishing a national biodiversity centre to
coordinate PGR activities in the country
• Promoting traditional/ under utilised/ emerging crops
• Streamline access and benefit sharing of PGR through
a multi-institution/discipline effort
• Policy highlighting possibility of giving incentives to
farmers in order to conserve PGR.
• Implement seed relief policy
• Amendment of Seed and Plant Variety Act CAP 326
• Implementing amended seed regulations
• Strengthening KARI Seed Unit and other public
institutions to produce basic seed for orphan crops
• Need to initiate and encourage some type of quality
standards in the informal seed sector.
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