Small seed with a big footprint:
Western Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Nepal
According to Paul Okong’o, retired school
teacher and leader of Technology Adoption through Research
Organizations (TATRO), Ochur Village, Western Kenya, farmers
first disliked the maize whose seed he and group members are
producing. “It has small grains, and they thought this
would reduce its market value,” he explains. “But
when you sowed the seed, which looked small, what came out
of it was not small!”
Small-scale maize farmers of the Regional Agricultural
Association Group (RAAG), another communitybased organization
in Western Kenya, have quintupled their yields in only one
year—now obtaining more than 2 tons of maize grain per
hectare—using seed, fertilizer, and training from TATRO,
according to RAAG coordinator, David Mukungu. “This
has meant that, besides having enough to eat, farmers were
able to sell something to cover children’s school fees
or other expenses,” says Mukungu. “We started
with six farmers the first year, but after other farmers saw
the harvest, the number using the improved seed and practices
increased to thirty, and we expect it will continue increasing.” |
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