Policy Brief on Integration of Formal and informal Resilient Seed System Development in Western Kenya

Abstract

Community Seed Banks (CSBs) represent a strategic interface between farmer-managed and formal seed systems, with proven potential to conserve agrobiodiversity, enhance climate resilience, and improve equitable access to quality seed for smallholder farmers across heterogeneous landscapes. In Western Kenya, where CGIAR sister centers, national institutions, farming communities, and development partners collaborate under the CGIAR Multifunctional Landscapes (MFL) Science Program to advance food production, biodiversity conservation, and livelihood outcomes, CSBs offer a locally grounded and cost-effective mechanism for addressing persistent weaknesses in the seed system. These weaknesses stem largely from a policy and regulatory environment that prioritizes the formal seed sector. This bias limits the recognition, institutional support, and scaling of farmer-managed seed systems, and generates tensions with constitutional provisions that protect indigenous seed systems and associated knowledge. The brief identifies key binding constraints (BCs) alongside emerging opportunities and proposes actionable recommendations to embed CSBs within national and county-level strategies, in accordance with the indigenous seed protection provisions of the Kenyan Constitution. Realizing the full potential of CSBs will require deliberate policy coherence, targeted investment in local capacity, and strengthened science–policy–practice interfaces to deliver sustained, landscape-level impact. Western Kenya is a smallholder-dominated farming region characterized by highly diverse agroecosystems spanning mountains, deep valleys, and plains. The presence of both long and short rainy seasons enables year-round cropping. These landscapes are inherently multifunctional, delivering food, ecosystem services, cultural values, and rural employment. However, they are increasingly exposed to climate shocks, soil degradation, and declining crop diversity. In this context, Community Seed Banks (CSBs) in Western Kenya play critical roles, including: - In situ conservation of locally adapted agrobiodiversity and genetic resources. - Improving affordable farmer access to diverse, climate-resilient plant propagation materials. - Supporting agroecological transitions and enhanced dietary diversity.