For most of us if we need seeds we pop into the local nursery and for a relatively small fee we can get any sort of high performing seeds.

But it’s not so easy for smallholder farmers around the world. Seeds of improved varieties may not be available and if they are they can’t afford them.

So the folks at Gambia’s National Agricultural Research Institute and the International Center of Biosaline Research taught the members of several farmer’s cooperatives how they can multiply seeds and process them. NARI gave them some improved seeds of cowpea and pearl millet and planted them in a fenced off community garden created by the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The president and vice president and some members of the Cooperative popped by to show us their work. The seeds planted three weeks earlier had germinated and were looking good. At harvest they’ll carefully process the seeds and distribute them amongst the members. Next year they will have access to improved varieties that will certainly provide better yields on degraded soils than their current varieties.