Modernizing Seed Saving Techniques for African Crops to Improve Efficiency, Quantity and Quality of Expensive and Difficult to Obtain Seeds

Commodities

• Vegetables: greens (leafy)

Practices

• Crop Production: seed saving

This project's focus is to compare my traditional method of seed saving with a new method we have researched. The objectives are threefold: to reduce time to dry seeds, to improve the quantity of viable seeds after drying, and to increase the quality of the seeds. Traditionally I manually dry seeds in the sun, use a sieve to separate seeds and chaff and store until spring. The new method will use a moisture proof box and high tech Zeolite drying beads to reduce time to dry, and then a machine to mechanically separate the seeds from chaff/ husk, reducing seed loss and long term storage in a vacuum sealed container to maintain quality. I will track time and seed weight to use as a comparison. I will also do germination trials comparing seeds obtained the traditional way and seeds obtained using this new method to determine if the new process has any effect on germination percentages. I will repeat the process and compile three years of crop data to compare time efficiency, seed quality, and seed quantity between traditional and modernized seed saving methods. Once results are determined, I will share at the Northeast Organic Farming Association February Winter Meeting in 2029. Additionally, I am a farmer within a program run by World Farmers, a nonprofit who will facilitate spaces for me to share my results with other farmers in their program.

The objectives for this project are to compare my traditional process with a new seed saving process with the objectives of: (1) Reducing seed drying time , (2) Increasing quantity of seed saved and (3) Maintaining a high quality of seeds saved. I will be using 4 seed types: Managu (Solanum nigra Black nightshade) seeds 1/16 inch; Terere (Amaranthus, Amaranth) ; 1/25 inch; Chinsaga (Cleome Gynandra Cleome leaf) 1/32 inch and Mitoo ( Crotalaria brevidens, Slenderleaf). Each of the years I will be raising .02 acre of each seed type and I will be growing on the same plots each year.

Reducing seed drying time is one of the main goals. Currently I spend three to four weeks putting seeds outside to dry and they require 2-3 hours of my time each day. This process requires my constant attention and in some years when the weather is wet and rainy we are not able to dry the seeds down to an acceptable moisture level which reduces the quality of the seeds. I am confident that the new method will enable considerable time savings which will allow me to focus on other areas of my farming operation.

(2) Increasing the quantity of seeds saved. The manual process of drying in the sun and then using a sieve to separate the seeds from chaff/husks causes a significant loss of seeds. By adding in the mechanical seed separator we will be able to reduce seed losses. As the weather becomes more volatile, being able to have more seeds than are needed for the coming year will help me have the ability to continue growing my strains even if we experience a year or two of crop loss.

(3) Maintaining a high quality of seed. I will be testing to see if the new process will result in at least equal if not improved germination. We will be testing three years of seeds saved. If we have three good years we will have more data to substantiate the process. If there is one year of crop disaster we will at a minimum be able to compare the data from two years. Although I can sometimes get most of these seeds online they are costly and are not always from good plant lines or the seeds purchased on the internet do not always have good germination percentages.