What happens when a seed company disappears? Lessons from Western Kenya
After Bubayi Seed Company shut down, farmers, aggregators and seed producers in Western Kenya felt the effects. A field visit by Alliance and KALRO researchers reveals what its closure says about the resilience of bean seed systems.
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What happens when a seed company disappears? Lessons from Western Kenya
After Bubayi Seed Company shut down, farmers, aggregators and seed producers in Western Kenya felt the effects. A field visit by Alliance and KALRO researchers reveals what its closure says about the resilience of bean seed systems.
When Bubayi Seed Company shut down, more than 300 contracted bean out growers in Western Kenya lost their main buyer overnight. A young farmer in Trans Nzoia who built his best seasons around Bubayi's contracts is now without that market. An aggregator in Kitale who once moved 250 metric tonnes of rejected low quality unprocessed seed but good quality grain a year is scrambling to source grain from as far as Uganda. And a public seed producer with the infrastructure to fill the gap is instead sitting on unsold stock as its germination rates quietly decline.