A ‘seed resilience’ project in Rwanda has helped local farmers to grow almost 10 times as many carrots on the same land just by swapping old seeds for new varieties.
The seeds, procured from a range of regional and worldwide companies, are not genetically modified but were selectively sourced or cross-bred to suit specific growing conditions.
One plot in the trial yielded 9.8 times more kilograms of carrots than the national average (based on 90,000 plants per 0.1 hectare). Yields for other crops including cabbage, tomato and onion all also increased when new, more suitable seed varieties were sown.
The project was a collaboration between the Rwanda agriculture and animal resources development board (RAB), the NGO Fair Planet and the International Seed Federation (ISF).
The availability and effectiveness of extension services and outreach often inhibits adoption of resilient crops, and specialized seed varieties are often not available to farmers in this region, but it is hoped that projects like this will provide better opportunities for smallholders to utilize their land more efficiently.
“In a rapidly changing environment, it is crucial to develop crop varieties tailored to the specific needs of smallholder farmers,” said Fair Planet operations and technology manager Dr Alon Haberfeld. “[This empowers] smallholder farmers to achieve high yields even under shifting climate conditions.”
