Seed: A neglected farm input
Seed is one of the basic farm inputs. It increases crop yields by up to 20 percent depending on other inputs and farming methods. But very few farmers pay serious attention to the quality of seed they use.
For most crops, seed should not be over-recycled. For hybrids, new seed has to be bought every growing season. But open-pollinated varieties (OPVs), including legumes, should be recycled for no more than three seasons.
Farmers should buy seed from certified seed traders to be sure that it will germinate. These sellers vend seed that the right variety is grown in the right environment. Some crops do well where the rainfall duration is short while others do well in medium rainfall season. Furthermore, some crops do well in long rainfall duration areas.
When buying seed, farmers should know where the variety is best adapted so that the farmer gets maximum yields. They should also consider issues of resistance of the variety.
Resistance to different climates, pests and diseases is vital. Adaptability to particular types of soils is also another worthwhile consideration.
Follow the weather forecasts. The updates are not just aired for fun. They help serious farmers choose the right crop and variety for their area.
If the weather experts say there will be very little rain that year, then the farmer has to go for fast-maturing crops and varieties.
Farmers need to plan for the coming agricultural season every year. Most farmers buy some inputs such as fertilisers, neglecting the seed. When it rains, that is the time they start looking for seed. Sometimes they have no money to procure the seed or their varieties of choice are not there. As such, they end up buying and planting anything that is available.
Others go a step further to buy grain from the market and plant. They are not even sure of the variety they are buying. Others just recycle what they planted the previous season even if it is hybrid variety. Others just buy from any market at the lowest price they can get the seed because they are so desperate.
This all happens because of lack of planning. Despite planning so much for the other inputs, especially labour and fertiliser, most farmers end up harvesting very little because of using very poor seed. Had the farmers planned and invested carefully, they would have already bought enough inputs.
Most farmers just know that seed is something that germinates. But they never think about the yield potential and the issues of adaptability and resistance as already discussed. What they care about is getting a plant from the seed, period.
Due to farmers ignorance the business community is cashing in on them.
Nowadays the business persons can dye the grains to look as if it is treated and sell to the desperate farmers. They sell it at a giveaway price that the farmer run for this fake seed rather than genuine seed that would have helped them change their economic status.
Due to ignorance some farmers are recycling the crops for several years without caring that the crops are being reduced in terms of yield potential in every subsequent year they are grown.
Very few farmers have guidelines in terms of making the right choice of the crop or even a variety to plant for a particular year and particular location.
Farming is a business. For commercial farmers, they should consider using all the available crop scientific information available to them to harvest much from their fields. n
