Prime
How to get good planting materials
Mr Michael J Ssali
What you need to know:
- The best way to get high yielding seeds is to visit registered farmers’ shops where seeds prepared by renowned seed companies are sold.
One of the best ways to increase agricultural production is to use high yielding planting materials.
Improved seeds from agricultural research institutions can be trusted to give high yields and these are the seeds that a serious farmer should use. Successful farming begins with good seed selection.
Nowadays agricultural scientists in universities and National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) work closely with farmers to produce improved seeds. The seeds are bred by the scientists with the area crop production challenges in mind which makes the seeds most suited for the area to grow, and to give good yields.
Like in the case of Kyazanga Farmers Cooperative Society the scientists work closely with selected farmers to plant well-bred seeds whose yields are distributed and sold to other farmers.
Another way to get high yielding seeds is to visit registered and well recognized farmers’ shops where seeds prepared by renowned seed companies are sold. Generally seeds obtained by hybrid propagation are very good.
Agriculturists describe hybrid seeds as seed types that result from the cross-pollination of two or more distinct varieties.
When a farmer plants hybrid seed he or she is bound to have a uniform crop. The harvested crop will look the same and due to hybrid vigour the yield will be quite high, other factors being constant.
The farmer growing hybrid seed is expected to plant the seeds in rows making it possible to use heavy machines for weeding and even harvesting. Most commercial farmers choose hybrid seed.
However agriculturists Uganda Biotechnology and Bio-safety Consortium warn that hybrid vigour is maintained for only one generation especially for cross pollinated plants, eg maize. Therefore farmers are advised to get new seed for each planting season.
Another way to increase agricultural production is to plant vegetative propagated plantlets or seeds.
For this kind of planting material there is no pollination of fertilization. Parts of the plant are used for planting.
Examples are sugar cane, banana, sweet potato vines, cassava stems, and roots like ginger and Irish potato. The farmers may generate the planting material themselves without going to shops.
Some of the vegetative propagated plantlets are however not so easy to generate by ordinary farmers. Examples of these are cloned coffee plantlets, grafted plantlets, and tissue culture. These have to be obtained from well recognized nursery beds and tissue culture laboratories.
Mr Michael J Ssali is a veteran journalist,
[email protected]
