How to Start Certified Seed Production

Variety Development

New seed verity is developed in laboratory for farmers and research centers. Plant breeders, fields and laboratories jointly develop seed verities and sell certified seeds to local farmers

The genetically manipulated seeds are produced as foundation seed, breeder seed, nucleus seed and certified seed. The primary purpose is to increase crop yield, decrease growth time and plant tolerance.

A portion goes to farmers for cultivation others are reinvested into research and develop of new verities.

Why Certified Seed Development

Certified seeds are developed with new traits and genetic markers. The purpose is improve farm yields, drought tolerance and growth period.

Other factors include lodging, insect and disease resistance. The seeds provide a platform for further research into innovative verities for the good of mankind.

Parent Seed Manipulation

Pilot seeds are generally produced in small quantities in laboratories and growers are mandate to multiply the seed. Seed growers need Federal seed grower’s association (FSGA) accreditation including registered seed plot for breeder seed.

Your mandate is to reproduce according to rigorous production standards. This is to ensure full compliance and production of registered and certified seed crops. The certified seed producer is committed to produce quality commercial grains.

Field Selection and Registration

A certified seed Production Company needs to register the field. The plot is subjected to strict land use provisions including district seed certification inspection.

The said plot should be free of soil contaminants, synthetic fertilizer or other harmful agents. Others are proper irrigation, free from weeds, other crops, insect pests and soil borne diseases. There are also strict space/isolation requirements from other verities, related species or hybrid plants.

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Equipment Sanitation

Certified seed growers are mandated to always operate at highest standards of production. They need to invest extra time cleaning and sanitizing machinery and planting equipment.

This is important to maintain seed/crop purity and bountiful harvest. Cleaning ensure no cross breeding or mixing of different verities of the breeder seed. This is also done to separate invasive weeds, insects or crops.

Isolation and Roguing

Certified seed growers isolate the farm from other crops. There are two types of isolation required by certified seed farmers.

You need field isolation and space isolation. Space isolation is distance of seed plot and neighboring plot while field isolation is total separation of seed field.

To maintain genetic purity of certified seed crop roguing is applied.  The farmer removes noxious weeds, pollen's and other crop plants from field. Roguing is carried out throughout the planting, growing and harvesting season.

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Field Inspection

The seed crops are regularly inspected by Field inspectors. The federal food inspection agency is mandated to carry out regular checks during the growing season.

They verify isolation, land use history including parent seed stock identity. They check for other crops present on the field, varieties and impurities of any kind.

Make sure your field meets federal seed grower’s association land use requirements. After the inspection the field is issued compliance assurance standardization certification.  The crop certification assures official blue certified tags for registered seed producers.

Harvesting

You have passed the rigorous inspection and certification not done yet. Before harvesting make sure you protect the quality of your yield.

Extra time should be spent cleaning equipment to prevent other crop seeds, weeds and hybrid seeds. Seed plot is harvested at maturity once granted by inspectors.

Threshing yards remove dried twigs, stones, husks, leaves and other contaminants. The seeds go through drying, pre-cleaning, grading and seed treatment.

Others include weighing, bagging, tagging, sealing and sales. You need a separate storage facility and records to preserve genetic identity.

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Testing and Grading

The seeds are tested for compliance and grade standardization. The grading takes into account physical purity, and germination.

This is to assure a higher quality seed than regular seeds. You then receive the FSGA crop certificate of compliance to physical purity standards and seed germination. Certified seeds are then packaged, labeled with official blue certified seed tag.

Marketing

The seeds are sold to commercial farmers and food processors. Large commercial farmers prefer certified seeds because of the yield, growth time and quality.

The seeds also provide lodging resistance and improved disease resistance. Specific quality grains are also in high demand by food processors.

Processors prefer such grains because of high quality, source verification and consistency. Other benefits are documentation, certified seeds and consumer preference.

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