Kenya Moves to Standardize Training for Rooted Apical Cuttings

On 29 June 2026, the National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK) convened a consultative meeting through the Kenya Sustainable Potato Initiative (KSPI), supported by AGRA, specifically to review and harmonize the Seed Potato Production Training Materials for RACs. The stated problem, in NPCK's own framing, was that a lack of harmonized training materials and standardized operating procedures had made it difficult to ensure consistency in training, screenhouse management, and production practices — three areas that directly determine whether seed potato coming out of the RAC pipeline actually meets quality standards.

The meeting drew technical experts from the State Department for Agriculture, KEPHIS, the KALRO Potato Research Centre-Tigoni, FIPS-Africa, and NPCK itself. That spread matters: it puts the national regulator (KEPHIS), the national research institute (KALRO), a grassroots extension-focused organization (FIPS-Africa), and the government agriculture department in the same room as the seed potato council. Harmonized training materials produced with that combination of sign-off carry more weight across the value chain than a document authored by any single institution alone, since each of these bodies touches a different part of certification, research, or on-the-ground extension.

The technical discussions moved through the full RAC production cycle: mother plant management, rooting and curing, field establishment, crop management, and screenhouse operations. Participants also flagged the need for standardized operating procedures to guide production and reinforce quality assurance across the seed potato value chain. This is not a rebranding exercise — it is an attempt to fix the specific, technical points in the process where inconsistent practice is most likely to produce weaker seed stock.

Once finalized, the harmonized materials are intended to serve trainers, extension officers, seed producers, and youth entrepreneurs engaged in RAC production. Naming youth entrepreneurs specifically alongside the more expected trainers and extension officers signals that RAC is being positioned as an entry point for new commercial players in seed production, not just an internal technical fix for existing institutions. NPCK frames the expected payoff as stronger technical capacity, wider adoption of RAC technology, and improved access to quality seed potato for smallholder farmers.

The meeting's own framing leaned heavily on collaboration between public and private sector stakeholders as the mechanism for strengthening Kenya's seed potato system. Through KSPI, NPCK describes itself as continuing to promote innovation, build technical capacity, and support sustainable seed potato production to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the sector. Whether the harmonized materials deliver on consistency will depend on how widely and faithfully they're adopted once finalized — a step the source material notes is still pending.