Government commends Seed Co
LISTED seed producer, Seed Co Limited has been commended by the Government for its initiatives in developing quality seeds that ensure farmers are supplied with higher yielding seeds that meet varying agro-ecological regions and are disease and drought tolerant.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement, Dr John Basera said all cropping initiatives start with the right seed and this is the space Seed Co and its similarly situated entities occupy.
He was speaking during a RARS Field Day at the Rattray Arnold Research Station IN Arcturus.
“The foundation of the development of a vibrant agricultural sector is the seed sub-sector. Without the provision of quality seeds, there were no success stories in the cropping sub-sector to talk about,” said Dr Basera.
“It is in this regard that the Government applauds the wonderful work that is happening at this research station and the huge investments that Seed Co has undertaken to ensure that our farmers are supplied with higher yielding seeds that meet their varying agro-ecological regions and are diseases and drought tolerant.”
Dr Basera added that the Government has launched various programmes such as NEAPS and PISP to ensure farmers access the required essential inputs on time.
The programme has been expanding in scope to accommodate more farmers as well as introduce other climate smart traditional grains like sunflower.
The expansion of the programme was done to ensure that we alleviate the difficulties in accessing finance and to promote higher productivity, he noted.
He applauded the firm for investing in new technology which allows research results and breeding programmes to reach farmers much faster than before.
“In actual fact the laboratory has more than halved the time it took you to release new products. That in itself means that you are now able to get to the market much quickly and to respond to any emerging diseases and other growing conditions much more rapidly.”
Seed Co Limited managing director Mr Terrence Chimanya said it is the mandate and goal of Seed Co to ensure the development of crop varieties that are better suited to new and ever changing climatic conditions.
“We have released varieties that have tremendous adaptation capabilities that increase mean temperature and accelerate crop development resulting in shorter crop durations and reduced time to accumulate biomass and yield.”
He said the Government must be complimented for coming up with various grain import substitution programmes (Presidential Input Programme and National Enhanced Agriculture Productivity Scheme NEAPS).
“The seed industry solidly aligns itself to Government’s especially the Agriculture initiatives that are aimed at making this industry the main driver of the Zimbabwean economy,” he noted.
On investments made, Mr Chimanya said it has been worthwhile as it has now drastically cut the time in which they are able to respond to and offer the market new products ensuring that farmers now get new varieties in almost real time.
“In addition, the laboratory is also enabling us to increase breeding gains (high yield in terms of improvements of existing varieties); bred for improved genetic quality of seed which will lead to increased yield for farmers; and increasing precision in breeding leading to development of world class varieties.”-chronicle.cl.zw
