The cold room was part of a $100,000 project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and implemented by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). The cold room will store high value maize seeds with an array of traits, including resistance to diseases, insect-pests and climactic stresses such as drought and heat, for up to 10 years. The cold room also will make seed readily available for distribution to national partners and seed companies to reach farmers faster, the CIMMYT said.
Eliud Kireger, director general at KALRO, said the seed storage cold room and other research facilities established on KALRO sites are “rewarding not just to KALRO and to the seed companies, but to many smallholders in Africa, who continue to be the inspiration behind every effort put into maize research and development work by KALRO and partners like CIMMYT.”
