Government destroys Sh1bn, giving fake seed to sunflower farmers

The government last year disabled over 14,000 acres of farmers’ land, costing taxpayers at least Sh250m to buy substandard seeds that then destroyed more than a further Sh680m of earnings for the farmers who planted them.

The Sh981m government project, which aimed to triple Kenya’s edible oil production to save on expensive imports, foundered on the purchase of low-quality, field-harvested animal-feed seeds that were imported by the government from Zambia. Some of the seed failed to germinate, while the rest produced low-value, split headed-crops, scanty flowers, and almost no oil. The result was that farmers previously earning around Sh50,000 an acre from sunflower oil earned less than Sh1,500 from the government seed.

Sunflower is the most grown seed in Kenya by farmers producing edible oil for cooking. But anyone bringing seeds into the country needs a Plant Import Permit (PIP) from the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS), based on detailed information about the seeds and their proposed use, and tests by KEPHIS to ensure they are in good health and meet Kenya's minimum standards, before being distributed to farmers.

KePHIS has not responded to requests for information on how it tested or approved the 21 tonnes of sunflower seed imported by the government, but an investigation by FarmBizAfrica reporters has found that they were second or third generation open-field seeds gathered from low-grade sunflowers in Zambia for use as animal feed. They delivered just 3% of the oil per acre produced by recognised oil-production seeds.

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When Philip, who grows sunflower on 10 acres and processes it into oil, heard the government was distributing free sunflower seeds to farmers he saw it as a real opportunity for his mum, up-country. As a result, when the HomaBay county government announced it was distributing the sunflower seeds, his mum, who is a registered farmer, went to the Rawinji chief's camp in Kasipul constituency, where she was given three 1kg packets of the seed.

Through the Agriculture Food Authority (AFA), Home Bay County alone gave out over 27,000 sunflower seeds last year to at least 7,000 farmers to plant on 6,500 acres.

However, when Philip visited his mum to help in planting the seeds, based on his experience with sunflowers, he was really worried that seeds advertised as sunflower seeds for oil totally black but a blend of colours.

“They were reddish white, white and dark black striped, white and pale black mongrel sunflower seeds,” Philip said.

Sunflower seeds pressed to make oil are called black oil sunflower seeds because they are usually totally black. Striped sunflower seeds have very little oil, but are rich in vitamins, proteins and energy and so are usually used to make animal feed.

During their growing, Philip, a retired agriculture teacher, observed that while they matured at a good enough pace, they created additional side stems from the bse of the parent, which can happen with seeds that are not first-generation hybrid seeds (F1), but saved and replanted seeds, often from a second or third generation.

In sunflowers, these extra stems lead to smaller sunflower heads, drawing growth from the main stem and delivering little on the side stems, to produce far lower seed yields.

From the two acres that his Mum planted with the 3kg of seed, she got just six bags of sunflower seed, or 180kg of seed, compared with the 720kg an acre Philip had got on his own farm.

 “On my eight acres in Migori where I grew the Hysun 33 hybrid sunflower I got 12 sixty kilogram bags for every acre,” Philip recalled.

When he ran the seeds through his manual oil press he was doubly disappointed. “We pressed the seeds repeatedly until we were tired and the best we could do was only two kilos of oil from a 60kg bag. The seeds were full of fibre rather than oil. They were better suited for animal feed, not oil production,” he said. In comparison, the same amount of Hysun 33 seeds gave him twenty liters of oil per bag.

Lazarus, another sunflower farmer that FarmBizAfrica talked to, who has installed a one-tonne sunflower presser in Siaya capable of producing 200 liters of oil daily, did not dare get any of the government seed.

While the hybrid oil seeds are expensive, with a kilogram of Hysun 33 costing Sh2,000, he still preferred to pay this steep price rather than get the free government seed.

“The cost of production of sunflowers per acre is about Sh30,000. That doesn't change regardless of the sunflower variety I grow. My only reason for planting sunflowers is for their oil content. There is absolutely no business case for me to be growing the government seed that gives me just two or three bags an acre and about 3 per cent of oil after pressing them, even if they are free.”

“With the hybrids I get 10-15 60kg bags of seed each producing 15-17 litres of oil. Once I press the oil I do not even have to transport it to Siaya town, the neighbours around me come and buy it for Sh250 a kilo and it's gone in no time,” he said.

Other farmers reported that the seeds had failed to germinate at all. For many, the result was that they used land that could have been growing food and other crops. Those close to the sector report that the seed was of a quality so low that they had never seen any sunflower seed of that standard previously certified by KePHIS.

Other victims of the fake seed have been sunflower oil processors, with the expected boom in supply replaced by a slump that has left their presses empty.

AFA has not responded to requests for information on how the seeds were selected and no public information is available on the tender process executed by the president’s office or AFA for the purchase.