Sustainability strategies and challenges of selected community seed banks in Kenya

Community Seed Banks (CBs) can be central to seed sovereignty, agrobiodiversity conservation, and enhance farmer resilience to climate change. However, analysis of their sustainability strategies and challenges remains underexplored in Kenya, particularly at the community level. This study analyzed sustainability strategies and challenges influencing the long-term viability of 18 CSBs across selected study sites in Kenya. A participatory, field-based mixed-methods approach combining focus group discussions, key informant interviews, field observations, and desk review were applied. Results show that the sampled CSBs are governed through volunteer-driven, and culturally embedded committees, with membership rising from 901 to 2, 231 between 2018 and 2024, over 80% of whom were women. Across the studied CSBs, a wide range of neglected and underutilized crops were conserved, often reintroduced into local farming systems. More than 80% of the CSBs examined reported transitioning into agroenterprises, producing a variety of products such as composite flours, cooking oils, crisps, bio-inputs, and nutraceutical powders, thereby linking conservation to household nutrition and income generation. Solidarity groups engaged in table banking and ecological practices such as compositing, agroforestry, and biofertilizers and biopesticides, also contribute to local adaptive capacity within the study contexts. Despite these innovations, sustainability among the sampled CSBs was constrained by structural barriers, including product certification costs, unfavourable seed laws, leadership conflicts, and under-characterization of conserved crops. CSBs sustainability can be enhanced through participatory crop characterization, affordable quality assurance mechanisms, and integration into national and sub-national agricultural policies. Future research should assess long-term economic outcomes, gendered participation dynamics, and the resilience of CSBs under climate and market shocks. In the studied CSBs in Kenya, seed access and conservation of neglected and underutilized crops support local agrobiodiversity and livelihoods. Governance among the sampled CSBs is typically volunteer-driven, gender-inclusive, and embedded in community participation. More than 80% of the CSBs examined have diversified into agroenterprises, connecting seed conservation with nutrition and supplementary income. Structural barriers, including leadership conflicts, product certification costs, policy inconsistencies, and limited crop characterization, constrain sustainability of sampled CSBs.