ASARECA and National Potato Council of Kenya firm-up collaboration to boost potato value chain
BY BEN MOSES ILAKUT
KAMPALA, UGANDA—ASARECA and the National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK) have formalized their partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), especially to boost the performance of the potato value chain.
Strategically witnessed by an Africa-wide audience attending the 13th Triennial African Potato Association (APA) Conference at the Speke Resort in Munyonyo, Kampala in Uganda, the two organizations inked the MoU during the Policy Dialogue to Review Implementation of the East African Community Regional Seed Potato Strategy and Action Plan on May 26, 2025, at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala.
The MoU was signed on behalf of ASARECA by the Interim Executive Director, Dr. Sylvester Dickson Baguma and for NPCK by the Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Wachira Kaguongo. The audience included researchers, policymakers, industry stakeholders, and development practitioners gathered in Kampala to share insights and innovations, as well as deliberate on the strategic importance of potato and sweet potato to the African economies.
Key areas of collaboration
The MoU enjoins ASARECA and NPCK to work towards exchanging information and development of specific cooperative projects in several areas including:
Scaling the use of agricultural digital platforms by farmers
Specifically, the two parties agreed to further their efforts to promote the Viazi Soko digital platform, which was developed by NPCK with initial support from ASARECA and partners to provide access to farm inputs market through aggregation, collective orders and market linkages targeting the potato processing industry. Under this, ASARECA and NPCK agreed to onboard farmers onto the Viazi Soko Platform, monitor the utilization of the platform and document how the app is improving access to markets, quality inputs, weather forecasts, and e-extension services.
Joint research and training
The parties also agreed to undertake joint research for development through establishing onfarm trials, demonstration fields, and writing grants proposals. They converged on the need to facilitate capacity strengthening through training during farmer field days on various topics such as digital literacy, contract farming, good agronomic practices, group dynamics, farming as a business, and other business development services in the potato value chain among other mutual needs.
About NPCK
The National Potato Council of Kenya is a Public Private Partnership organization of multi stakeholders in the potato industry. Its main aim is to support in organizing stakeholder activities along the potato value chain with the aim of transforming the sector into a robust, competitive and self-sustaining industry.
About ASARECA
The Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) is a sub-regional not-for-profit intergovernmental organization comprising 15 member countries, namely Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Somalia South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. ASARECA brings together researchers from the national agricultural research, extension and education institutions, the private sector, and other strategic partners including Development partners to generate, share and promote Technologies, Innovations and Management Practices (TIMPs) and knowledge to solve common challenges facing agriculture in the sub-region. ASARECA is strategically positioned to perform higher level facilitative, supportive, coordination and advocacy roles to enhance sustainable agricultural transformation and economic growth in the Eastern and Central Africa (ECA) sub-region.
Recent engagements supported via EU funding
ASARECA recently collaborated with NPCK, Farm Inputs Promotions Africa ( FiPs-Africa), the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and Egerton University to promote the dissemination of Rooted Apical Cuttings (RAC) technology for multiplication of farmer preferred potato varieties. Through this partnership, ASARECA supplied cuttings of 26,000 farmer preferred potato varieties including Shangi, Unica, and Wanjiku, 200 kgs of fertilizer and assorted pesticides to farmers and stakeholders in Marioshoni, Elbergon in Nakuru County and Murungaru in Nyandarua county. This specific activity was supported under the ASARECA-coordinated initiative, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme ex-pillar IV (CAADP-XP4) Programme financed by the European Union under the Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) initiative, which is managed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Initiative supported through AICCRA Project
Earlier, in the first quarter of 2025, ASARECA leveraged financing from the Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa Project (https://aiccra.cgiar.org) to support Innovation Platforms receiving technical backstopping from NPCK for dissemination of Best Management Practices as part of the strategy to scale out Climate Smart Agriculture varieties through community multiplication arrangements. The AICCRA project is implemented in collaboration with Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and is funded by the World Bank.