Why uncertified seeds will land you in jail

Bean seeds. Researchers want certified seeds to be sold at grain stores among other informal markets to enhance availability thereby boosting food production. FILE PHOTO | NATIO MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The law seeks to harmonise the growing and development of agricultural crops. But as if to militate against its own spirit, a Sh10 million fine or five years in jail is imposed on anyone found guilty of growing, drying, storing, processing or selling scheduled crops without a license.
  • According to Carol Peters Ngesa of Kenya Young Greens “the aim of the forces behind the law was not to regulate farming but to finally centralise, monopolise and control seeds and food in Africa.”

Esther Mbeti walks into her well-stocked store, rolls up her sleeves then divides each of the 90 kg bags, one for maize and the other for beans, into halves.

She loads the two halves on a bike and off she happily pedals her way down to the Eldoret open air market to sell. The other two halves are for her diabetic mother.

The aging woman depends on these varieties of maize and beans, which have been passed down generations. They are not known to grow anywhere else, due to their low carbohydrate content.

Esther is one of seven of every 10 people in Kenya who over the decades have grown, harvested and stored uncertified seeds. But she will not do this any more as growing, processing, storing and transporting uncertified seeds is now a criminal offence under the little-known Crops Act passed last year.

The law seeks to harmonise the growing and development of agricultural crops. But as if to militate against its own spirit, a Sh10 million fine or five years in jail is imposed on anyone found guilty of growing, drying, storing, processing or selling scheduled crops without a license. These scheduled crops include barley, sorghum, wheat, millet, beans, alongside tea and coffee, but the Agriculture Cabinet Secretary reserves the right to add other crops to the list.

On the one hand, farmers are angry about the law’s myopic supposition that all the food grown, including indigenous vegetables and fruits found sprouting on their own in certain localities, and are processed and consumed according to local knowledge and tastes, are intended for the market.

PEOPLE DYING

On the other hand, cases of people dying after consuming contaminated food, including aflatoxin-infected maize, have put government under pressure to guarantee safety of food with regard to growing, handling, storage and distribution in the liberalised market.

With food flowing freely across borders, it is urgent to enhance traceability— including specifying soil and weather conditions under which food is grown, and hold those charged with the responsibility of feeding the public to account for what they sell.

This is what led to enacting the law. But it favours market at the expense of the indigenous farmer, according to John Osewe, an official of Uasin Gishu farmers’ forum. Most participants at a meeting organised by Agriprofocus in Nairobi couldn’t agree more.

Agro-dealers, scholars and publishers at the conference supported by the International Institute for Rural Reconstruction had a bone to pick with MPs for excluding farmers when passing the law accusing them of undermining trust and transparency.

According to Carol Peters Ngesa of Kenya Young Greens “the aim of the forces behind the law was not to regulate farming but to finally centralise, monopolise and control seeds and food in Africa.”

This is retrogressive, he told the gathering, because Kenya had been emancipated from centralised control by the 2010 Constitution, which had ceded the responsibility of development, including food production, to the citizens.

“If you grow your indigenous barley, rice, potatoes, maize or beans and pollen grains from your farm are found to have been blown by wind to a neighbour’s certified crops, you are liable to prosecution for growing uncertified crops and defiling your neighbour’s crops,” he added.

FEARFULLY ABANDON

To avoid conflict with the law, small-scale farmers may fearfully abandon indigenous crops, trees and livestock.

This is bound to undermine food diversity and self-sufficiency — leading to decline in overall food production.

“In Western, we have millet for making wedding uji; another variety for circumcision uji and another one for regular use. We have beans for githeri, a variety for rice and yet another for eating plain, all which are not grown for the market,” said Rosemary Musomi a farmer from Kakamega.

“If all these crops are abandoned and we all troop to multi-national corporations for certified terminator seeds, our cultural uniqueness as a people is eroded and we lose our human dignity.”