KALRO to produce 5.8 tonnes of early generation rice seeds 

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Rice

The Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) has launched the development of a sustainable certified rice seed production system, that is expected to transform farmers’ livelihoods through availing affordable certified rice seed for improved productivity.

Through a 5-year collaborative project with the Korea Partnership for Innovative Agriculture (KOPIA), they will support production of early generation seeds, multiplication of certified seeds of elite varieties and also distribution of certified rice seed to rice farmers.

Speaking in Mwea during the launch of the project Tuesday, KALRO Director General Dr. Eliud Kireger said that Kenya’s domestic rice sector has not satisfied the increasing demand for rice and this has been worsened by the population growth of the middle class and urbanization with people who are increasingly relying on rice for food.

“Consumption of rice in the country is going up especially because of the young people who are abandoning ‘ugali’ and going for rice. Kenya’s urban population is also projected to reach 50 percent of the total population by 2050, which means their demand for food will lead to a significant deficit in milled rice,” he said.

The DG explained that currently, the demand for rice per individual per year is 28 kgs but looking at the current trends, Kenyans are expected to consume approximately 30 kg of rice per capita by 2027 translating to a total of 1.8 million MT of milled rice.

“Currently, we are consuming about 950,000 to a million metric tons of rice, whereas we are only producing 200,000 metric tons, that is a deficit of 80 percent and for us to be able to close that gap, we need to have a seed system which ensures affordable quality seed, so that farmers are able to increase production,” he observed.

He explained that in order to meet this demand, the government, through the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda under the ‘reduce imports pillar’, targets to have a compounded annual growth rate of 25 percent in rice production.

“Hopefully in the next 4 to 5 years, we will have bridged that gap of up to 50 percent to 60 percent of what we are producing and this will be done through improving access and availability of certified rice seeds of high yielding market preferred varieties to farmers,” he added.

Dr. Kireger said that in any crop-based production system, the significance of seed quality and effective seed systems cannot be underestimated saying that in Kenya, 90 percent of the released and adopted rice varieties are open-pollinated varieties (OPV) and farmers often recycle grains as seeds and this practice among other reasons has also led to sub-optimal yields of commercially grown rice varieties thereby failing to meet the country’s rice demand over the years.

“The rice seed system is still at its infancy, resulting in inadequate availability and accessibility of quality rice seeds of high yielding climate resilient, market preferred varieties,” Dr. Kireger said adding that through this project, 5.8 tons of early generation seed and 1000 tons of certified generation 1 (one) seeds of high yielding climate-smart consumer preferred rice varieties will be produced.

Additionally, he said that the project would capacity-build 75 technical experts including plant operators, seed technologists and extension officers locally and 10 experts trained on seed production in South Korea while 210 farmers will be trained as seed growers on quality rice seed production.

KOPIA, he added, will also be contributing to rice research by introducing, validating and commercializing Tongil rice varieties developed from the Korea Africa Food and Agriculture Cooperative Initiative (KAFACI) project which include ISRIZ 6, ISRIZ 7 and UKAFACI 39 varieties.

The KALRO-KOPIA Project will undertake capacity building at different technical levels to facilitate sustainable quality seed production and will be supported by two South Korean experts on cultivation and post-harvest management of rice seed.

The DG further said that the project would also be looking at mechanization considering one of the biggest challenges the farmers are facing is drying.

“We will in this project be looking at mechanizing the whole value chain from seed production, mechanization, post-harvest management. We are going to introduce dryers for farmers and even harvesters for rice,” he added.

Dr. Kireger thanked KOPIA and Rural Development Administration of South Korea for funding the project activities saying this is a testimony of the strong collaboration that exists between KALRO and KOPIA.

Director KOPIA Kenya, Ji Gang Kim said that increasing rice self-sufficiency is one of the important agricultural policies in Kenya and therefore it is necessary to develop new varieties, disseminate certified seeds and also improve cultivation technology.

He added that it was also important that the rice drying environment and post-harvest management be looked at in order to supply high quality rice.

“It should be a big concern that in Mwea, rice is being dried on the road side where vehicles are driving by and emitting smoke and by products bringing about the challenge of contamination. This project will create a rice production model that covers seed preparation, cultivation and also post-harvest technology,” he noted.

Kim explained that Kenya has a favourable climate and potential to increase rice productivity noting that the project will not only install rice facilities, have seeds, storage room and warehouse in the Mwea area but they will also train farmers on how they can increase production of rice.

Through the 5-year project that KOPIA is funding together with Rural Development Administration of Southern Korea, Kim   said that they will be injecting Sh130 million (USD one million) bringing a total of Sh650 million (USD 5 million).

John Macharia, a rice farmer in Bura, Tana River, thanked KALRO for always addressing the challenges that farmers have been facing, especially on access to seeds.

“We used to initially grow the ‘Pishori’ which was not doing very well  in our area but since they introduced a new variety Komboka, we have increased our rice farming and even moved towards growing seeds which were initially a challenge.

“From my one and half acre of land, I get 3,800kgs of seeds and I normally plant 10 acres when I get contracted by KALRO which they buy at Sh70 shillings per kilogramme, a ready market and good money,” he said.

Macharia says that since they started selling komboka rice and also the seedlings, they have gotten rid of the brokers who used to dictate their prices and urged the government to continue supporting KALRO by introducing more varieties especially in the coastal area.

KALRO has been in partnership with KOPIA for over 15 years during which they have implemented joint projects in various value chains including maize, indigenous chicken, potato and sericulture. Currently, through the partnership, there is an ongoing project on “Demonstration and promotion of chicken feeds containing black soldier fly larvae and rice by products in Kenya,” initiated in 2024.