| Work Detail |
In order to support farmers access to quality seeds, Enabel encourages the various actors to play their full role.
The branch of the Institute for Agricultural Research and Research (INERA), located in Ngandajika, is located upstream of the seed sector and is responsible for producing the first seeds of the new varieties.
It is then these seeds that specialized farmers will multiply under the technical control of the National Seed Service (SENASEM) in order to put them on the market of quality seeds and to propose them to farmers.
The program implemented by Enabel in Kasaï-Oriental and in Lomami has therefore granted a subsidy to the INERA station of Ngandadjika so that it can produce maize, peanut, cowpea and soya seeds.
This subsidy is also intended to test different varieties and to collect the best seeds of the traditional varieties harvested by the farmers to describe them, to preserve them and to compare them with the seeds coming from the research centers.
A total of 32 "maize" maize seed varieties, 9 soybean varieties, 9 peanut varieties and 16 cowpea varieties were collected for this purpose with the support of the program.
The collaboration between the agronomic research center and farmers organizations to select the most interesting varieties is a good practice that has been revived thanks to the support of the Program.
And realizing it on such a large scale is really an innovation with many interests, including:
·
Improving the analysis of the potential of each variety and its adaptation to different agricultural environments;
Give farmers the opportunity to visit these trials and form an opinion on the varieties that best suit their environment, which should then facilitate the adoption of these varieties;
Encourage scientists to look at the potential of seeds used locally by farmers to facilitate the development of new varieties that are well adapted to the local context;
The program also granted a subsidy to SENASEM Kasaï-Oriental so that this service is able to control the quality of the seeds produced and to certify them.
Agronomists from the DRC Representation of the International Institute for Agricultural Research (IITA) have also been mobilized and subsidized by the program to scientifically support and strengthen the capacities of all actors involved in the improved seed production sector.
With this combination of actions and subsidies, the different actors of Kasaï-Oriental and Lomami involved in the production of improved seeds can access the necessary means to produce quality seeds at affordable prices for farmers.
|
