Nairobi, Kenya — "Initially, we believed nothing could come from this rocky land, but now we're successfully growing crops and preserving our seeds in a community seed bank." The Langalanga area in Gilgil, Nakuru County, sits atop a rugged, rocky hill that often leaves people questioning its potential. There, on this challenging terrain, lives an organic farmer Beatrice Mwangi, who conserves indigenous seeds every season to help community farmers produce healthy and nutritious food.
"We believed that nothing could come from this rocky land, but now we're successfully growing crops and preserving our seeds in a community seed bank," said Mwangi. "We don't have large farms, but everything changed after training with Seed Savers. Before, we had nothing to eat and couldn't send our children to school because we believed you couldn't grow anything on rocky land.
But after the training, we found a way. Look at this area - it's rocky, so you can't use a jembe (hoe) because there's no soil." Mwangi is a beneficiary of the Seed Savers Network, a social enterprise that strengthens community seed systems to conserve agrobiodiversity and promote food sovereignty.
Based near Lake Elementaita, the training center teaches agroecology and regenerative farming techniques, which Mwangi now passes on to other farmers. "We do three to four main things: first, we save seeds and have a community seed bank with 18 members. Second, we make biopesticides because we don't want to rely on chemicals f.