Bean seed distribution for a women’s farmer group in Mwingi County, Kenya. Photo credit: FAO Kenya

6 February 2015, Nairobi - “More needs to be done to bolster investment and interest in grain legumes in Eastern Africa”. This was the message from more than 50 grain legume experts who met in Nairobi last week (28th to the 30^th of January 2015).

Legumes such as beans, groundnuts, cowpeas, pigeon peas, chickpeas, soybeans, lentils and faba beans play a crucial role in human food and nutrition security and agro-ecosystems. For small scale farmers they double up as cash crops for income and subsistence crops for family nutrition. However, small holder farmers still struggle with access to good quality seed and improved varieties. Many farmers rely on their own seed while private sector involvement in legume seed markets is still remains low and poorly developed. While many new improved varieties have been developed with potential to drastically improve production, farmers are still not aware and are not using them.

Several innovative and impact oriented legume seed systems have been tested and deployed in some countries in Eastern Africa under initiatives such as the Tropical Legumes II Project and the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA). While a positive impact has been recorded for millions of smallholder legume farmers, many of whom are women, the models applied provide important lessons that need to be shared and scaled up  to improve the overall performance of the legume seed systems in the region.

It is in this context that the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) organized a regional workshop to share experiences on impact of proven legume seed systems, identify most appropriate and scalable legume seed systems, engage public policy makers, donors and private sector to scale up the most appropriate legume seed system in each participating country and develop a clear follow up plan in each of the participating countries.  More than 50 experts working in grain and legume value chains in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan, senior government officials, international and national researchers, international non-government organizations, farmer associations and the private sector were in attendance.

This is the first time that such a group has come together to highlight the importance of grain legumes and find sustainable solutions to the challenges of making quality seed of improved varieties more widely accessible to those that need it.

Speaking at the workshop, Assistant FAO Representative for Programme Implementation in Kenya, Mr. Robert Allport thanked participants for responding to the call from CIAT, FAO and partners. “We all recognize the need to reshape and reposition our legume sub-sector and legume seed systems for a more environmentally, socially and economically sustainable agriculture in the region”, he noted. “Our challenges are clear. Let us work together to give legumes a new boost and a new direction. Let us find convincing and sound arguments to bring food legumes back on the agenda of governments, decision-makers and partners.”

Mathew Abang of the FAO Subregional Office for Eastern Africa reminded participants that the workshop was taking place against the backdrop of the United Nations Proclamation of 2016 as the International Year of Pulses, and stressed the need for all actors to use this unique opportunity to give grain legumes the attention they truly deserve.

CIAT’s seed systems specialist, Jean-Claude Rubyogo, commented: “Unlike other crops such as maize and rice, legume seed systems are woefully inadequate to meet farmers’ needs. Yet if seed systems are improved, countries in the region would get enhanced access to new and better legume varieties, and thereby improve their food and nutrition security in a gender equitable manner. This workshop is the first step towards that. By bringing all the key players to the table we have kick started the process to promote broad discussion and cooperation.”

During the meeting, participants presented successful legume seed system case studies from their respective countries. The cases presented various entry points - community, private and integrated seed systems, market led approaches to seed system development, nutrition driven systems as well as the use of innovative approaches such as small packs. They collectively agreed on the need to bolster the immense interest in legumes and discussion centered on how to catalyze national efforts on legume development by addressing high impact potential bottlenecks that affect implementation of legume initiatives across multiple countries in the region.

It emerged that while countries have varied approaches to seed systems development with unique opportunities for success, the role of regulatory bodies in ensuring quality seed is crucial. Participants agreed to develop concept notes on specific interventions needed to bolster grain legume seed systems nationally and also proposed the following major regional interventions:

1. Establish a cross-legume platform: Despite so many legume crops being grown in the region, only beans have a regional coordination body - the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA). Proposals were made in favor of establishing a Pan Africa Legume Alliance (PALA) as an overall coordinating coalition that would facilitate the sharing of legume technologies, innovations and management practices.
2. Engage Regional Economic Communities (RECs) to improve the policy and regulatory environment: engagement with RECs such as the East African Community (EAC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) in pushing forward the process of harmonization of seed policies, fast-track implementation of harmonized seed regulations and allow multi-country release and cross-border seed and grain trade so as to make seed business profitable and attract private sector investment and participation in legume seed systems.
3. Develop appropriate evidence to improve the profile of legumes: Participants agreed there is an urgent need to make legumes a priority issue in the eastern Africa regional development agenda and felt that the upcoming International Year of Pulses (IYOP) 2016 is a major opportunity to share promising ideas on how to transform the legume sub-sector in the region. They agreed to develop the case studies to share with stakeholders and lobby high-level policy actors from member states to make a strong compelling case for improving access to good quality legumes seeds.

Where some policymakers arrived at the workshop skeptical, they left enthused and positive that collectively, with researchers, farmers and the private sector, partners can find sustainable solutions to this challenge.

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This news release is jointly issued by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture and the Office of the FAO
Representative in Kenya. For photos and more information, contact:

• Stephanie Malyon (CIAT-Kenya) at [email protected]
• Judith Mulinge (FAO in Kenya) at [email protected]