The Seed That Refused to Die

For years, the members of Yelekeni Farmers’ group in Tee Okuto village, Pabbo Sub-county, Amuru District watched something precious slowly disappear.

Erudu White, a local groundnut variety treasured for generations because of its rich taste, strong market demand, and resilience was gradually losing the very qualities that had made it valuable. Harvests became smaller. Plants succumbed more easily to groundnut rosette disease and aphid attacks. Every season, farmers feared they were witnessing the disappearance of a seed that had long supported household food security, incomes and livelihood.

Many would have abandoned the variety and replaced it with commercial seed. Instead, the farmers chose a different path. Rather than giving up on Erudu White, members of Yelekeni Farmer Field School began asking a simple but powerful question: “Can we restore what our parents once had?” it seemed impossible.

Working together through the Farmer Field School approach, they transformed their fields into living laboratories. Season after season, farmers carefully observed crop performance, identified vigorous plants, selected healthy seed, and compared results. They adopted row planting, improved field management practices, and strengthened quality seed production, while relying on their own knowledge and practical experience.

Slowly, the results began to emerge. "At first, it was hard for many farmers to believe that we could restore crop traits that had been lost over time. But by the second season, they began to see the changes for themselves, and the Farmer Field School approach started to make sense. Today, we are proud of how far we have come, and we are grateful that we did not give up."  Francis Ocaya, FFS Facilitator

The Erudu White variety started regaining its strength. Plants produced healthier growth, heavier pods and improved yields. Farmers also observed better tolerance to common production challenges, restoring their confidence in a variety they had almost lost.

Today, what was once considered a declining local variety has become a source of renewed opportunity. Encouraged by the improvements, Yelekeni Farmers’ group is organizing collective production to increase volumes, improve seed quality and respond to growing market demand. Farmers are no longer simply producing groundnuts, they are producing quality seed and strengthening a local seed system capable of serving surrounding communities.

This transformation did not happen by chance. Since 2024, ESAFF Uganda, in partnership with CIRAD, Oxfam in Uganda, and PELUM Uganda, with financial support from Norad, has supported the group through the Farmer Field School methodology. This has strengthened farmers' capacity in participatory variety enhancement, quality seed production, crop observation, and agroecological field management.

Rather than introducing external seed varieties, the programme invested in farmers' own knowledge, enabling them to improve a local genetic resource while preserving the characteristics valued by their communities.

The story of Erudu White is much bigger than one groundnut variety. It demonstrates that small-scale farmers are not merely technology adopters, they are innovators, researchers and custodians of agricultural biodiversity. When equipped with practical skills and supported to experiment in their own fields, farmers can improve local seed systems, conserve indigenous crop diversity and build resilience to climate change using solutions that already exist within their communities.

At a time when agriculture faces increasing threats from climate variability, biodiversity loss and declining soil fertility, the experience from Yelekeni Farmer Field School reminds us that some of the most effective innovations do not always come from laboratories. Sometimes, they begin in farmers' fields, guided by generations of experience, strengthened through collective learning, and nurtured by a determination to protect what matters most.

The restoration of Erudu White is therefore more than the restoration of a crop variety. It is the restoration of confidence, knowledge, resilience and hope. Because when farmers improve their own seeds, they are not only securing the next harvest, they are safeguarding the future of food sovereignty, biodiversity and rural livelihoods.