Finger millet is an important nutrient dense and climate resilient crop. The Genetic Resources Research Institute (GeRRI) holds a huge collection of over 2000 accessions of finger millet that has great potential for enhancing food and nutritional security. In order to achieve this, it is imperative that strategies are put in place on how farmers can access and use this diversity. GeRRI has accorded farmers an opportunity to select their preferred ecotypes based on their preferred selection criteria. This subset consists of 17 accessions selected from a pool of 670 accessions planted in Busia, Western Kenya. It was selected by 34 farmers, with the key selection criteria being time to maturity, number and size of fingers, drought tolerance and degree of bird attack. The subset forms an important resource that can be used directly by farmers or incorporated into finger millet breeding programmes.