The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) has received equipment worth Sh1.3 million for seed inspection. Gatsby Africa donated the 30 tablets that will enable real time inspection of various crops such as maize, beans, wheat, sorghum, cowpeas, green grams, potato, rice etc.
The equipment will enable the implementation of the automated seed certification and plant variety protection system aimed at providing digitalised services to the farming community. More than 150 seed companies are registered by Kephis and the new tablets are expected to ease the huge inspection task.
According to Prof Theophilus Mutui, Kephis managing director, the tablets will enable transmission of real time information and data to Kephis, thus enabling faster decision making on seed inspections. Duncan Onduu of the Seed Trade Association of Kenya noted that digitisation of the seed sector would mitigate delays and promote efficiency.
“We want smallholder farmers, who are the majority, to get quality seed for enhanced food production,” said Michael Kamau a director at Gatsby Africa.
Meanwhile, Kephis has shared out protocols on certification of genetically modified (GM) cotton to seed industry stakeholders. In a two-day consultative meeting recently, standards on Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND) and the selfing in the hybrid seed production were also shared out.
