The newspaper was established as the African Standard in 1902 as a weekly by Alibhai Mulla Jeevanjee, an immigrant businessman from British India.
Throughout history, regular exchange of seeds among communities and farmers allowed crops to adapt to different conditions and climates, and soils, pests and diseases.
The paper first made a profit in September 2009.
The ultimate aim of business interests is to make it impossible for farmers to freely save, replant, exchange and sell seeds, thus making them dependent on commercially-produced seeds.
It became a daily paper and moved its headquarters from Mombasa to Nairobi in 1910.
It is based in Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya.