In Kenya, traditional and locally adapted crop varieties are increasingly disappearing. Monocultures are reducing biodiversity and making farmland more vulnerable to drought, pests, and other climate-related risks. At the same time, farming families are exposed to volatile market prices and unpredictable developments, putting their incomes at risk.
This project aims to build more diverse and resilient food and farming systems. Growing traditional crop varieties helps boost biodiversity, strengthen resilience to climate change, and improve the nutritional quality of local diets.
Biovision and its partner organisations support rural communities in growing and marketing heirloom vegetables. To this end, farmers are setting up local seed banks and agricultural exchange centres – preserving knowledge and creating economic opportunities.
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This project is supported by SDC
The seed banks are now running successfully. Many farmers have become seed producers: They grow a wider variety of fruits and vegetables and earn additional income by selling seeds. This not only reduces their dependence on volatile markets, but also increases the resilience of their cultivated land to climate change impacts.
The next step is to involve even more farmers in cultivating traditional crops and diversifying their farming systems. In parallel, Biovision and its partner Bioversity are working to improve the political framework – so that supportive policies can ensure the long-term success of these efforts.
