By Rosemary Tukundane
A right seed is one that is bred well, kept and is pure genetically [can germinate well].
Prof. Phinehas Tukamuhabwa, a lecturer at Makerere University Agricultural Research Centre says that he joined soybean research because it is a miracle crop of many uses such as soybean oil, cake for animal feeds like diary animals, dogs, pigs, milk, bread and meat.
He added that a lot needs to be done by a farmer to get the right seeds to plant.
- Cleaning
- Harvest when the crop has fully matured when it is has dried completely, thirtieth from the garden and leave the trash in the garden to work as manure and take only the grain at home.
- Clean the grain thoroughly to remove all the mold and split the seed to remain with only the needed seed.
- Dry your seed up to 12% moisture content.
- Pack your seeds in sacks when thoroughly cleaned to prevent them from getting spoilt to fake seeds.
- Storage
- Storing in a cool atmosphere and put the sacks on timber pallets to prevent the seeds from absorbing moisture that can let the seed to lose life.
Do not put the seeds on the wall because water pack can enter into the seeds through the wall. The store should not be very hot, farmers in hot areas like Northern Uganda, it is advisable to make the store grass thatched so that it is cool and well-ventilated but dry and cool. This makes your seeds live longer.
Storing your seeds first helps one to avoid fake seeds on the market, hence yielding high.
Fake seeds germinate less, making farmers lose interest in the farming business but working together with love and passion can eliminate fake seeds from the market completely. Researchers and farmers together can push fake seeds out of the market, and this will bring a big number of people to join agriculture as a business.
