By Wisdom Mumera.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – The Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) has urged local vegetable farmers to use standardized seeds instead of secondary substitutes if they are to realise positive results.
The organization said companies such as Starke Ayres provided adequately tested seeds to farmers safeguarding against negative results due to ill prepared seeds.
“Some prominent seed companies such as Stark Ayres have realized the importance of research and development and are working to deliver new, improved vegetable varieties which we urge farmers to use”.
“This has seen the company initiating breeding programs in tomatoes, beans, squash, pumpkins, sweet corn, peppers and many more of their varieties”, the organization said.
Farmers have previously faced challenges in sourcing finances to acquire adequate commodities for their farming projects resulting in the implementation of cost cutting measures such as the use of
untested seed.
These have however impacted negatively on the final product with some suffering massive losses.
“Standardized seeds are made with objectives which include improving yield potential, increasing adaptability and disease resistance, ensuring high germination and seedling vigour, creating seed that
yield vegetables of the size, shape, flavour and colour that the markets demand”, it added.
Some local farmers have been using untested seed for their farming activities before resulting in failed crops and massive losses.
This has negatively impacted on the country’s agricultural sector.
Due to these challenges ZCFU President Wonder Chabikwa has said he was worried that many farmers could fail to purchase inputs on the open market due to liquidity problems.
Totally free inputs were ended in 2013.
Of the twenty horticultural seed houses in the region, Starke Ayres has a dominant share supplying most of the companies in Southern Africa.
It supplies a range of commonly grown vegetable seeds to the growers with its product range including both high quality, performance tested hybrids and open pollinated varieties.
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