Overall objective
To improve food security and
alleviate poverty in Western Kenya and Uganda by developing and
enhancing the capacity to produce and distribute quality seed of
improved varieties of maize to farmers.
The specific objectives are to:
-
Improve the capacity of
NARS to produce breeder and basic seed of improved maize varieties
-
Expose farmers to improved
maize varieties through extensive on-farm variety testing using the
mother and baby trial approach
-
Allow farmers to evaluate
and select suitable varieties for the their conditions
-
Develop effective seed production
and distribution systems among farming communities in collaboration
with appropriate public institutions and private seed companies.
Project progress
By 2003, breeders’ seed production
has been enhanced. Results of multi-location trials and farmer
evaluations from the nearly 200 mother and baby trials in six
districts in western Kenya and two districts in Uganda indicated that
the approach greatly enhanced farmers’ knowledge base and generates
information that compliments the efforts by breeders to develop
well-adapted and acceptable maize varieties. Experiences with farmer
associations (mainly women groups) have showed that farmers can
produce good quality seeds if offered training and assured of markets
for their seeds. Development of farmer associations producing seeds is
going on in Northern Uganda and western Kenya where these are less
developed than in Eastern Uganda.
Collaborators
-
National agricultural research
systems [Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and National
Agricultural Research Organization of Uganda (NARO)
-
Non-governmental organizations
-
Farmer seed cooperatives
-
Private and parastatal seed
companies
-
CIMMYT
