SEED HEALTH IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES
The Seed health Improvement Project (SHIP) is a subproject of PETRRA.
The SHIP as a whole aims to address the problem of deteriorating seed health amongst resource-poor farmers in Bangladesh. This involves farmer participatory research to improve seed stocks through seed sorting, improvement of storage methods, etc. The aim is to establish clean seed practices leading to rice crops that are uniform and free of weeds and pests. This in turn has the potential to increase yield and hence food security and income of resource-poor farmers.Seed is one of the most important inputs into rice farming. The seed industry in Bangladesh is extremely inadequate and only able to supply a small percentage of farmers with seed. As a result, most farmers save seed from their harvest to use next year. Since yields of farmers' self-saved seed have declined over recent years it has been recognized that seed quality has decreased. In most cases the seed is a randomly selected portion of the harvest and consequently the quality of this seed deteriorates year by year as it becomes mixed with other varieties and weeds and affected by disease and insects. Rice crops have therefore become less uniform with more weeds.
SHIP has aimed to work with farmers to emphasize the importance of good quality seed on the production of a good crop and worked with some interventions to produce better seed. These interventions include manual seed sorting, field selection and special care of a portion of the field that is to be used for seed.
In addition to selection of good seed, drying and storage play very important roles in maintenance of quality. This is especially the case with seed from the Boro season that has to be dried during wet periods and stored during the wet season.
The work performed in the main parts of SHIP utilizes farmer participatory research to address the potential problems. This has the multiple benefit that farmers are more likely to trust the results, they learn how to investigate other problems in the future and feel a sense of ownership of the activities.
While
this process proceeds, research officers have been collecting data on various
crop traits, including pest and disease data, and final yield have been
measured.
The Importance of Clean Seed
Good quality, healthy and clean seed is a key ingredient towards getting a good harvest. When we say "clean seed" we refer to the minimization of pathogens, storage fungi, insects, weeds, off-types, unfilled grains and various inert matter.
These contaminants may lead to problems during storage or during crop growth resulting in a reduced yield.
Various approaches may be combined to improve the quality of seed. These include field selection and rogueing, proper drying of seed, storage in dry, airtight conditions and where appropriate by manual removal of contaminants. Grain that is destined to be next year's seed should be carefully selected and special care should be taken of it.
SEED SORTING
A
program was initiated to pursuade farmers to sow better quality seed.
This began by BRRI taking 1kg of farmers saved seed. Half of this was sorted by hand, looking for discolored or unfilled grain, grain that represented mixture (i.e. With different size or appearance to most grains in batch), weed seeds, insects, insect damaged grain and inert matter. Both the sorted and unsorted halves were returned the to the farmer to be planted adjacent to each other. Farmers could therefore assess for themselves whether the sorted seed was better than the unsorted.
The aim is that in subsequent years, seed for sowing is taken from these clean areas. An additional phase of sorting should also be done during growth. Non-uniform plants and weeds can be removed. Year by year the saved seed should become more pure and this benefit should, consequently, spread to the whole crop.
In the first year farmers were impressed by the results but sceptical that it was really their own seed that had been returned to them. So, they were trained in how to sort the seed themselves. This was thought by the farmers to e laborious at first but eventually most considered it worthwhile.
Seed sorting demonstrated to the farmers that they must keep their seed clean but it is not the sole method of doing this. Other practices for good seed production may be followed.
FIELD SELECTION
Manual seed sorting can be very tedious and with poor eyes or poor light it can be very difficult. Practice makes it easier and farmers that initially thought it inappropriate have become adept at it. Also the family or other groups can get together and sort seed while chatting. Also there are a number of techniques to aid seed sorting and minimize the manual part of the work. These include floatation and winnowing.
However, the main reason that this project included seed sorting was so that the farmers could see that clean seed was important and gave better yields and a better crop in general. In practical terms field selection can play a much more useful and effect method of obtaining good seed. Winnowing, floatation and manual sorting can be used in addition if necessary but field selection should be the primary activity to obtain good seed.
The advantage of field selection is that all stages of the crop and all parts of the plant can be observed.
A portion of the field may be set aside for seed production and special care taken of this portion. Diseased plants should be removed, as should weeds and other rice varieties (off-types/mixture). A farmer may also consider judicial use of and fungicides or insecticides on this portion.
Before
harvesting the main crop, the portion for seed should be harvested and kept
separate.
SEED DRYING
One of the most important factors when storing rice seed is keeping it dry. Low moisture content will reduce the ability of storage fungi and insect pests to attack the seed. Traditionally rice is dried on the ground in the sunshine. if available an area of concrete may be used but usually the surface is hard soil. This is still effective at the end of the Aman season when there is rarely rain.
However, after the boro harvest rain becomes frequent as the wet season approaches. At this time of the year the ground rarely dries fully. It is much more difficult to effectively dry rice. Farmers sometimes use a covering on the ground on which rice can be placed. This can reduce ground moisture transfer to the rice and also allow easier collection of the rice if a shower comes.
Through discussions with farmers an improved method was devised using drying tables that keep rice away from the ground moisture, allow greater airflow and can be maneuvered to avoid rain or to catch sunshine.
It is also important that these tables are multipurpose. It is uneconomical to make and store something that will only be used once or twice per year. The tables can be used for drying other materials such as other seed, chilies, flour, fire wood, etc. Also they may have other purposes such as for eating, or storage. The pictures below show a table being used for threshing and another that is double layered and can be used for storage.
SEED PRESERVATION
Grain used for food may or may not be sold after a short time but seed is most often stored for around 9 months in Bangladesh and its quality is of great importance for next year's crop.
During this storage period the seed is vulnerable to damage from storage fungi and from insect pests. The main principles for reduction of damage is keeping moisture low and oxygen levels low. This makes it difficult for fungi and insects to thrive. The most important factor is therefore to use a container that is airtight. This will also prevent insects from entering.
In addition various additives may be used to reduce the occurrence of insects and disease and to help maintain low moisture content.
Chalk, rice husk, ash, naphthalene balls and neem leaves have all been shown to be useful during storage
The Boro season harvest stored through the wet season can be a special problem due to the high humidity.
These are all recommended vessels for storage of rice seed. It is, however, important to seal them effectively. The main principal is that the vessel should be sealable and non porous while also being resistant to rats and accidental damage. Cost is also an important factor for farmers with little disposable income.
The most common traditional storage vessel the motka, a round clay pot with a lid. This is, however, porous to air and water. The motka may be improved by painting it both inside and out with an acylic paint and by using some kind of grease to help to seal the lid.
It is common practice for farmers to perform intermediate drying during the storage period. This is important if the storage vessel is not airtight. However, it may not be required if good airtight storage is maintained.
Extension and Upscaling
The seed health improvement sub-project has worked with a large number of farmers. Around 20 farmers at each of 4 sites in each of 7 districts gives around 560 farmers that were directly involved in the project. Many more copied the technologies used when the saw and heard about the effectiveness.
However, this is only a drop in the ocean of maybe 13 million farmers in Bangladesh.
There is no doubt that the technologies introduced are cost effective and useful to farmers. However, for the project to be worthwhile financially then the message has to be disseminated.
The SHIP sub-project or indeed the PETRRA project itself does not have the objective of extension and upscaling. The aim was only to aid research that will find answers to various rice related problems that can be addressed to alleviate poverty. However, it was decided that some effort would be made to research extension methods so that alongside recommendations of useful technologies, we could make recommendations on how to spread the word.
Conventional extension via Department for Agricultural Extension
Farmer to farmer training
Farmer field schools
Going Public
Production and distribution of books
Production and distribution of informative videos
Newspaper articles
TV programs
Radio programs
Posters
PETRRA communications fair