Standard Seed

The Ministry of Agriculture, in collaboration with KEPHIS and STAK, concerned about very low seed volumes of non-maize crops, proposed an amendment to the Seeds Regulations (2016) to include an enhanced category of Standard Seed.

Under the new definition,

Standard Seed” means seed that has met the minimum laboratory and post control standards for categories of crop as set by KEPHIS and is a progeny of certified 2nd generation or certified Standard Seed or by declaration by the Cabinet Secretary.

Standard Seed is therefore a new certified seed class which meets mandated quality standards but with slightly relaxed requirements for field inspections. In 2020, KEPHIS through consultations with seed industry stakeholders, developed protocols for ten crops: common bean (in dryland locations), cowpea, green gram, groundnut, finger millet, OPV sorghum, soybean, cassava, sweet potato and indigenous vegetables. So far, KEPHIS has certified Standard Seed for common bean, cowpea, green gram and sorghum seed during the short rains of 2020 and the long rains of 2021.  This update was shared in a stakeholders’ meeting that was convened in September 2021 to review how effective certification using the new protocols was.  Note that Standard Seed could be further multiplied from Standard Seed 1, allowing for two generations of multiplication under Standard Seed, versus a single generation.

Standard Seed is the perfect opportunity for seed producers of these often-neglected crops to ramp up production and ensure that farmers have access to good quality seed. Operationalization of Standard Seed is funded by Feed the Future through the Bureau of Food Security and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), through the Supporting Seed Systems for Development (S34D) Activity, for which the Catholic Relief Services serves as the prime contractor and works with several partners such as Agri Experience, in the case of Standard Seed in Kenya.