Vihiga farmers benefit from vegetable seed bank to boost incomes

More than 20,000 farmers in Vihiga county are benefitting from seed banks that store traditional vegetables.    

With increasing malnutrition and key nutrient deficiency of zinc, iron and vitamins in Western Kenya occasioned by changing diets, a group of farmers are reversing this trend by investing in the cultivation, consumption, preservation and sale of indigenous vegetables and seeds to boost nutrition and incomes.

Researchers have found that undernutrition and obesity are on the rise, and many people suffer from deficiencies in zinc, iron and vitamin A.

The indigenous vegetables grown by the farmers include the amaranth, black nightshade, spider plant, Ethiopian kale and pumpkins.

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture have been working with farmers to establish community managed seed bank, where most of the imperilled and rare varieties are preserved.

Pauline Odera, a farmer who has participated in exchanging the seeds, said the seed bank is crucial for assisting farmers in diversifying their traditional crops while also ensuring access to quality seed.

“We normally store our locally produced vegetable seeds in the bank where we can access them quickly and produce different species that are highly nutritious to our health.

"The seed bank has numerous advantages, including preserving the quality of the seeds as opposed to those sold in the markets, where we do not know the source and which are susceptible to pests and diseases,” she said.

Lillian Aluso, the Alliance of Bioversity International project coordinator in Vihiga county, said farmers exchange these seeds with one another and replenish the bank with more seeds to allow the community to access them.

She said the farmers also get to learn about good agricultural practices like seed preparation, preservation, storage and organic preservation methods such as use of ash.

“These species are under threat because slowly we are seeing new varieties and fast foods coming in which has seen indigenous crops abandoned. The seed bank is meant to conserve these nutritious varieties. We are working to increase the number of farmers growing these crops and restore them back on the farms,” Aluso said.

Evans Ochuto, a farmer who helps manage the community seed bank, grows traditional leafy vegetables, including spider plant, black nightshade and amaranth.

He said he is able to provide food for his family and get vegetables and seeds to sell, while also training other farmers in the benefits of growing indigenous vegetables.

“The indigenous seeds are in short supply despite the huge demand they are attracting. Most people have now realised the nutritional value of them and are looking for them,” Ochuto said.

When the father of two started growing the vegetables in 2014, he was only earning Sh3,000 a month. But since delving into the sale of seeds, he earns Sh20,000 monthly, with spider plant and Ethiopian kale seeds fetching good prices.

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture have been working with partners, including Biovision Foundation Switzerland, Agriculture for Nutrition and Health CGIAR Research Programme and the ministries of Health and Agriculture to tackle this challenge.

Esther Odera, a nutritionist from the Ministry of Health in charge of community nutrition in Vihiga, said African leafy vegetables like amaranth can contain 200 times more vitamin A and 10 times the iron of a similarly sized portion of cabbage, for example.

“The nutrition department of the county government has been offering technical advice at the community level. They have also been working with community health volunteers and mother-to-mother groups through training in the value of indigenous vegetables. After training, these members reach out to other community members with the information they have been provided,” she said.

Beyond growing food for consumption, farmers have scaled up their production to sell surplus to markets, boosting their household incomes.

The project has reached more than 20,000 women between the age of 15 and 49 years in 10 sub-locations over four years. 

Aluso said this has been done through sensitisation, demonstration plots, seed banks and use of community health volunteers to carry out door-to-door nutrition training.

“An additional 2,000 non-beneficiary farmers have also been trained in kitchen gardening, strengthening food and nutrition security by bringing nutrient-rich neglected indigenous vegetables, including amaranth, black nightshade, spider plant, Ethiopian kale and pumpkins back onto the table,” she said.

“Another 25 farmers have also been trained in seed multiplication and community seed bank stocking through local partner Seed Savers Network."

-Edited by Sarah Kanyara