The Research Project
The project Local Seeds in Africa till now is fascinated by maize, the enormous diversity of varieties, the varying ways by which it is planted and consumed, and its cultural history. Maize and particularly the breeding and multiplication of maize seed generated controversies between proponents of the Green Revolution and those that support an agroecology mode of farming. The Local Seeds in Africa project has it roots in research that started in the early 1980s when Paul Hebinck started his PhD project on examining empirically the dynamics and outcomes of the Green Revolution in countries like Kenya. Between 1984-1989 he investigated the degree to which modern and scientifically bred maize varieties were accommodated by farmers in their labour process. The geographical focus of the field investigation was Nandi District, which part of the Rift Valley Province in Kenya. The specific purpose was to explore the redesigning (or reassembling) of the Green Revolution technology package by various categories of farmers, small and large. Their labour processes appeared not to be uniform and hugely varying in terms of labour input and intensity of use of purchased inputs such as hybrid seed and fertilizer. The variation in labour processes is propelled by various livelihood strategies, generating different kinds yields. While the planting of hybrids at the time was quite predominant in Nandi, in the areas in the southern part close to Luhyaland and Luoland, evidence was accumulating that farmers began to distance from the green revolution inspired maize practices. They did not simple redesigned the package but planted their local maize varieties that somehow remained circulated. The local varieties of course have been enriched over time in many different ways and developing new characteristics.
Over the years the research work shifted to Luoland in West Kenya in a cluster of villages close to Yala. Yala is situated on the main road between Kisumu and Busia (see map below). One of these villages, Sauri, was adopted in 2004 by Jeffrey Sachs as a Millennium Village (MVP) which was phased out in 2015 due to lack of ‘success’ and impact. Sauri was the first Millennium Village in the world. The shift to Luoland is in part due to the partnership that unfolded between Nelson Mango who registered as a master student and later as a PhD student at Wageningen University. Together with Coen van Kessel, we started to explore maize production and the Luo style of farming. Nelson having been born in the villages inserted his local knowledge and that of the history of the Luo, its local ecology and agronomy. Hellen Kimanthi joined the research efforts in 2014. First as Master student and later as PhD student. Hellen’s efforts were focused on studying the agencies that attempt to restructure and modernise maize farming in Luoland. These agencies include except the Millennium Village Project, states rural extension service and the One Acre Fund (OAF) that started to operate in the region from 2015. Hellen also explored for her PhD thesis in detail the gendered dimensions of the culture of maize farming in the villages. Together with Nelson, Coen and Hellen we explored in-depth the various varieties that were planted in Luoland at any given time of the research during 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2014-2016 and 2018-2019. We endeavoured to describe these varieties to find out why farmers planted these and how they compared these with the newest hybrid maize varieties produced by Kenyan and global seed companies, resp. Kenya Seed Company, Western Kenya, Monsanto, Seed Co, Pioneer Hybrids etc. We also traced their regional origin as detailed as possible. The impact of the Millennium Village Project approach on the intended changes in use of maize varieties away from local and adapting hybrids us rather minimal. During the MVP funding period there was some uptake of hybrids; now that funding has stopped and the MVP has faded, local maize varieties are still planted. Kimanthi also followed the activities of a new NGO called One Acre Fund (OAF) who like many other agencies and funders aggressively promotes the use of hybrid maize varieties. The uptake as our 2018-2019 of hybrid maize varies amongst and between the years and between homesteads.
In the course of 2018, Conny Almekinders and Richard Kiaka joined the team. Conny injected her knowledge about local seed systems and participatory plant breeding expertise into the team. One of the first activities we did was administering a short survey in the wider region to explore which local and hybrid maize varieties are grown and promoted. The sites of the survey are indicated in the map below. The findings are reported in Almekinders et al. (2021). We also started to work with the GENO Youth Group in Sauri and more intensively with Jethro Moyi who farms and runs a carpentry shop in Sauri. Together we started the Maize Field Trials to compare the kinds of yields hybrids and local maize varieties produce when grown under local conditions. Richard Kiaka registered as a member of the One Acre Fund to document from within how OAF works with farmers in the region. Richard collaborates closely with the GENO Youth Group in the Maize Trials.
A central argument that is developed over time is that maize seed is not just shaped by a technical or agronomical repertoire but also socio-culturally embedded. We explore the cultures of seed as heterogeneous and fragmented practices that are constituted by an assemblage of different seed and land related practices. These unfold as seed assemblages in which the agential capacity is not only located in the human actors (i.e. the maize growers, the extensionists, the maize breeder, etc.) but also in the non-human actors: the seed, the socio-technical networks co-shaping the assemblage, soils, policies , markets, etc. Both the human and non-human actors employ a certain grammar which manifests their agential capacity. The grammars are multiple: some socially defend and legitimise the planting of local maize; others the planting of hybrids. The ‘grammar of maize’ contains specific clues and explanations why certain ‘local’ varieties are predominant in the landscape and are continuously enriched while new, ‘modern’ varieties are present to a much lesser extent. The grammar of local maize is partly embedded in taste, nutritious and culinary preferences and in the specifics of the agronomy and climatological conditions in Luoland of two rainy seasons, a long and a short. Local maize does well under local conditions and means to enrich soil fertility and they grow extremely well in the short rainy season. Planting local varieties does not require high monetary inputs. If you are cash trapped, like many are in Luoland, than local maize is the preferred and best option to grow food for ones family and next of kin. Moreover, social relations of power between the older and younger generation are import. Rituals like golo kodhi (first planting) and doko cham (first harvesting) dictates that the older members of the generation initiate the planting or the harvesting. While this sounds rather structuralist, we learned through are fieldwork that such cultural repertoires can be accommodated and circumvented in many different ways. All together these processes and factors help us explaining why in Luoland, local varieties of maize sustain the test of time despite massive interventions to ensure the adoption of modern varieties.
While this certainly counts for the range of local varieties, the planting of hybrids is structured and influenced by the cultural repertoires of the MVP and OAF. Both employ a culture of extending favours and gifts to make sure farmers tie themselves to producing hybrids. Extending gifts is not new in the area. Previous well-funded project like the Agroforestry Soil Fertility replenishment projects implemented by ICRAF applied the same approach. Hybrids require reliable rainfall and fertilizers and thus money; the cost for these inputs are increasing, and rainfall has become more and more erratic over the years.
The motivation of this research is to show that the grammar in which the breeding, selecting, planting, harvesting and consuming of local maize is embedded represents a configuration that works and that secures food for the homestead and its surroundings, a configuration that builds on various kinds of interactions between the social and material, and one that should not be ignored when it comes to productivity and contribution to food security. Local maize needs a good PR (public relation) and it needs to be made visible. We do this through field research, documenting the traits and histories of the local maizes, through experimental trials comparing hybrids with local varieties, we work with youth groups in our field trials. We document our experiences in publications and other means of communications like blogs, lecturers and seminars.
Till recently we focused our field research on how various varieties of maize has been adopted, adapted, accommodated and integrated in the Luo farming system. Our main methods were qualitative and involved case studies, archival research, life histories of maize, people and intervening agencies. In some cases surveys were held to develop a larger picture of what maize varieties are grown, how and why. New research activities started in 2018-2019.
Below is a table that summarises our research efforts when it comes to tracing the origin of the various local and modern or hybrid maize varieties.
Maize varieties introduced and planted in Luoland, 1890-2019
| Arrangements/Mediating agents | Varieties | Colour | Year | Sources |
| Pre-colonial and colonial Trade | ||||
| Traders | Radier | Multicoloured | 1890s | Coastal areas of East Africa via Uganda |
| “ | Rachich | “ | “ | “ |
| “ | Rachar | White | “ | “ |
| “ | Rateng | Black | “ | “ |
| “ | Rapir | White and red stripes | “ | “ |
| “ | Nyamula | Yellow | ” | “ |
| “ | Nyauganda | White | 1982/84 | Uganda |
| “ | Kawanda | White | “ | Uganda |
| White settlers | Hickory King | White | 1910 | South Africa |
| Food and Famine relief programmes | ||||
| Colonial and post-colonial state officers | Oking | White | 1906 | White Highlands Kenya/ South Africa |
| Ababari | White | 1917 | Unknown | |
| ‘Nyamula’ | Yellow | 1928/36/82 | United States | |
| Labour Migration | ||||
| Migrants and former soldiers | Radier | Multicoloured | After World War II to 1970 | Uganda |
| Rachich | “ | “ | Uganda | |
| Rachar | White | “ | White Highlands Kenya/ South Africa | |
| Kazigo | White | 1922 | “ | |
| Research and Development, projects and programmes | ||||
| KSC, agrovets, Govt extension programmes | Kenya Flat White | White | 1960 | South Africa |
| “ | Kitale Synthetics | White | 1961 | Kitale, Kenya |
| Hybrid H 611 | White | 1964 | Kitale, Kenya | |
| “ | H511, 512, | White | 1964 | Embu, Kenya |
| “ | H 614, 622, 625, 626 | White | 1970-90s | Kitale, Kenya |
| KSC, MVP | DH04, H513 and H632 | White | 2005-present | Kitale, Kenya |
| PANNAR; agrovets | PAN 5195 | White | 1990s | South Africa |
| PANNAR, MVP | PAN ?? | 2003 | ||
| Pioneer Hybrid, agrovets | PH 1 | White | 1990s | United States |
| Lagrotech | Maseno Double cobber | White | 1996 | Kisumu, Kenya |
| Western Seed Co, MVP | WH502, WH505, WH404, WH403, WH507, WH202 | White | 2005 | Kitale, Kenya |
| Monsanto MVP, OAF | DK 8031 | White | 2005 | USA |
| SeedCo. MVP | SC Duma 43 | White | 2005 | Zimbabwe |
| SeedCo., OAF | SC Simba, SC Punda Milia | White | 2015 | Zimbabwe |
| Olerai Ltd, MVP | Olerai | White | 2005 | Narok, Kenya |
| Freshco, OAF | KDV-6 | White | 2015 | Nairobi, Kenya |
Local Seeds in Africa 