GITHUNGURI, Kenya, Dec 24 2025 (IPS) - For the past two years, Samuel Ndungu, a smallholder farmer, has been growing organic food and supplying it to the local market in Githunguri, just outside Nairobi.
On his 1.5-hectare farm, Ndungu practices organic farming, which promotes soil fertility through composting and crop rotation and controls pests with natural or biological methods. He has refused to use synthetic pesticides, fertilizers or genetically modified organisms. He grows various vegetables, including spinach, carrots and onions.
His farming venture was under threat by a Kenyan law known as the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act, making it illegal for farmers to share seeds. However, in November a Kenyan High Court case struck down parts of the Act, declaring that saving, using, and sharing indigenous seeds is a constitutional right, not a crime—a huge win for farmer sovereignty against corporate control. Government, however, has filed a notice saying it intended to appeal the ruling.
For smallholder farmers like Ndungu, the law was punitive because some of the seeds are expensive to buy as individuals, so they would buy as a group and share. The farmers also dry some of the seeds, preserve them, and store them in seed banks for future use.
An Information Technology specialist by profession, Ndungu said the law was cruel and punitive.
“The Seed Act affected us, smallholder farmers. We were being cast out,” he told IPS.
The seed banks help farmers conserve seeds of traditional and indigenous crops that are in danger of disappearing, as some farmers migrate to high-yielding varieties.
Samuel Ndungu is pictured on his organic farm in Githunguri, Kenya. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS
Fighting for Seed Sovereignty
Farmers in Kenya prefer sharing local seeds because they are better adapted to local conditions, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas. Some of these indigenous crops and vegetables do not require chemicals and farmers still get good harvests when they use natural methods to treat pests. Unlike imported hybrid seeds, which require pesticides and fertilizers.
A group of farmers with support from Seed Savers Network, a pioneering organization dedicated to preserving agricultural biodiversity and empowering farming communities across Kenya, challenged the restrictive law in the country’s highest court.
Tabitha Munyiri, an advocacy and communication officer at Seed Savers Network, said there has been a shift in the last decades from traditional farming to conventional farming, which has resulted in biodiversity loss. “We have seen a lot of seed varieties going extinct. Some of them are on the verge of extinction if we do nothing about it,” she said.
One of the workers at Samuel Ndungu’s farm in Githunguri, Kenya. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS
Munyiri said the controversial law focused on commercial firms while ignoring smallholder farmers.
Farmer-managed seed systems have been practiced in Kenya for years. There is relief now that the stringent penalties have been lifted – at least until the appeal goes to court.
About 80 percent of farmers in Kenya were at risk of being arrested and charged for violating this archaic law. Though there has been a lack of enforcement, and no farmers have been arrested and taken to court for violating this law, the law is creating uncertainty among farmers.
The government has also agreed to review the Seeds and Plant Varieties Act.
Munyiri said they hope to have integration of the two seed systems, where they operate together in complementarity.
The farmers want seed banks to be fully recognized and allowed to share and exchange seeds.
Kenya is also a signatory to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, which calls for the conservation and sustainable use of all plant genetic resources for food and agriculture and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of their use, in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, for sustainable agriculture and food security.
Samuel Ndungu is also into livestock production at his farm in Githunguri, Kenya. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS
Justus Lavi, the national chairman of the Kenya Small Scale Farmers Forum, said corporates wanted to kill the capacity of farmers to access seeds. Their influence on government policy was clear.
“The seed companies came and convinced our government. They have been effective. They are demonizing our indigenous seeds. They are convincing our farmers that our seeds, which are not certified, are not good,” he told IPS. “Yet these are the seeds we have been having in the country for centuries. It has been proven that they are effective because they have been there for years. They want to cheat us.”
Organic farming
Ndungu, who employs six other people, supplies fresh produce to the local market in Kiambu County in central Kenya.
Instead of fertilizers, he mixes chicken droppings, which are rich in nitrogen, cow dung, which is rich in phosphorus and potassium and organic matter to make organic fertilizer used at the farm.
Some of the plants at Samuel Ndungu’s farm in Githunguri, Kenya. Credit: Farai Shawn Matiashe/IPS
To control pests, Ndungu uses natural methods like crop rotation and the use of pest-resistant plants.
Ndungu, who turned to farming after failing to secure a job, said the vegetables produced by this farming method are safe to eat, unlike those produced by commercial farmers. Farmers believe organic food has higher nutrients since it has reduced exposure to pesticides and synthetic chemicals.
Some of the seeds of the indigenous crops are not found at the market; hence, farmers need to regenerate them.
While smallholder farmers around the world cultivate a small portion of land, they contribute between 30% and 40% of the food supply, according to a 2021 study. Smallholder farmers provide up to 60% of on-farm jobs, with over 70% of families earning their livelihoods from agriculture. These farmers invest USD 368 billion of their capital annually into their farms.
Ndungu is planning to expand his farming. “I want to capitalize and be able to produce not only more food but safer food,” he said.
IPS UN Bureau Report
