412 Emmanuel Luwemba – Disrupting the seed monopolies in East Africa

412 Emmanuel Luwemba – Disrupting the seed monopolies in East Africa

From Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food by Koen van Seijen

March 27, 2026 · 58 min · Episode 412

About this episode

Emmanuel Luwemba discusses disrupting seed monopolies in East Africa through a decentralized, farmer-owned seed company in Uganda.

Seeds, seeds, seeds. It all starts with power and who controls the seeds. But who is actually building scalable companies in this space? Today we have one: a decentralised seed company in Uganda that only works with indigenous seeds, is farmer-owned, and gives power, value, and control back to the farmers. The farmers are trained to select seeds and to grow them, and Emmanuel Luwemba, the founder of Eden Seeds, helps sell the best varieties to other farmers without extracting all life from th...

People in this episode

Host: Koen van Seijen

Guest: Emmanuel Luwemba

Topics covered

  • seed monopolies
  • indigenous seeds
  • farmer ownership
  • decentralized agriculture
  • East Africa

Keywords

  • seeds
  • agriculture
  • East Africa
  • farmer control
  • indigenous seeds
  • Eden Seeds
  • decentralized company

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Eden Seeds

Places: Uganda

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