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NSIMA Workshop Papers
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Photographs showing the Crown Seeds
initiatives in producing, packaging and promoting maize OPV
seed, derived from CIMMYT and facilitated by basic seed
production by ARC-GCI in South Africa. |
NSIMA Project
Impacts:
CIMMYT Maize OPVs registered and produced in South Africa
Kingstone Mashingaidze, Dries Fourie and Jeffrey Mkhari
Agricultural Research Council’s Grain Crops Institute (ARC-GCI)
Many rural communities in South Africa had no access to improved
maize varieties until recently. The Agricultural Research Council’s
Grain Crops Institute (ARC-GCI) has been testing and registering CIMMYT maize varieties, and promoting their use among farmers
through community-based seed production schemes and small private
seed companies. One such example is Crown Seeds, a new seed company
operating amongst smallholder farmers in the
Limpopo and
Mpumalanga provinces. During
the 2005/6 season, Crown Seeds produced 300 tons of certified seed
of ZM521. In the 2006/7 season, about 100 hectares of each of ZM521,
ZM423, ZM523 and ZM623 have been planted by Crown Seeds for
certified seed production, administered by SANSOR, the national seed
certifying agency. The company supplied certified seed of ZM521 to
smallholder farmers through community-based stockists, who also act
as crop advisors.
ARC-GCI’s
principal role is to register, maintain and produce pre-basic seed
of the CIMMYT OPVs. The
following CIMMYT varieties have been registered by the ARC-GCI in
South Africa: ZM421, ZM521, ZM423, ZM523, ZM623 and Obatanpa-SR.
Approximately two tones of pre-basic seed per season is produced for
each variety and distributed to smallholder farmers and seed
companies for Basic and Certified seed production. ARC-GCI also
provides technical support to the seed producers and communities.
The identification of adapted varieties is made possible by on-farm
Mother-Baby and VEVO Trials where farmers evaluate varieties under
their own farming conditions.
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