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COMFORT YELIPOIE

EVALUATION OF THE QUALITY AND ROLE OF FARMER-SAVED EGGPLANT (Solanum melongena L.) SEED IN THREE SELECTED PRODUCTION AREAS IN GHANA

ABSTRACT:

Eggplant is a one of the important crops of the Solanaceae family cultivated and consumed worldwide creating employment for many people in both villages and cities with China as the world highest producer. In Ghana, it is gaining more attention as a result of high demand for exotic vegetables species with the onset of foreign fast food companies and increasing tourism to the country, as well as challenges with garden eggs production due to increase pest incidence. Due to the inadequate number of varieties and availability of improved seed for varieties cultivated, most farmers use their saved seeds which is most common seed system practiced worldwide providing about 80% planting materials needs of smallholder farmers (Louwaars and De Boef, 2012) and as a result a study was conducted during the 2018/2019 cropping season in three (3) selected production areas to assess the quality and role of farmer-saved seeds in the production of eggplant (Solanum melongena L). The study comprised a survey and laboratory evaluation with the objectives of determining the background and production characteristics of eggplant farmers; identify the methods of seed extraction, processing, and storage of eggplant seeds; assess the seed quality of farmer-saved and gene bank-saved seeds of eggplant; and assess on-farm growth performance of collected seed samples. Seed samples were collected from Winneba, Kofi Nimo, Kyenkyenkura, Plant Genetics Resources Research Institute (PGRRI) and Technisem seeds for laboratory and field evaluation. From the survey, the majority of farmers were within the prime working-age group of 25 to 64 years dominated by male farmers. Majority of farmers had formal education with Junior High School as the common level and 5 to 8 household size. Majority of farmers (87%) saved their own seeds every season from fruits obtained from 3rd and 4th harvest by the wet method of seed extraction with the help of hand or mortar and pestle. About 45% of seeds extracted were dried under sunlight for 2-5 days and packaged in a piece of cloth or net that was tied and hanged under ambient conditions. Other seed packages used by farmers included old newspaper, sack, glass bottle, plastic bottle/bowl, polyethylene bag and calabash with only 3% treating seeds with Apron XL® fungicide for storage. About 89.5% of farmers use their own seeds because the varieties were preferred with assured germination percentages, and fmit quality. Also, the common challenges from all locations was pest and disease infestation (63%) with Kyenkyenkura with the most severe case as a result of unfavourable weather conditions (long drought). Laboratory evaluation of farmer-saved seeds had a percentage purity of 97 to 100 while seed accessions from PGRRI were 99.73% to certified seeds with 100%. Also, germination rates did not comply with ISTA standards ranging from 8.75% to 96% with the farmer-saved seeds from Kyenkyenkura with the lowest rate while 96% germination rate in certified seeds. Farmer-saved seeds from Kofi Nimo had the highest vigour compared to farmer-saved seeds from Kyenkyenkura which had the lowest vigour. A total of 6 fungi were observed on the seed surface while 8 fungi and I bacterium were observed from within the seeds. The most prevalent on the seed surface was Rhizopus stolonifera and Aspergillus niger while in the seed was Aspergillus flavus. From the results, it was observed that farmer-saved seeds from Kofi Nimo had the highest incidence of fungi and bacterium while certified seeds had the lowest incidence of fungi and bacterium. These could be as a result of the drying length and storage conditions employed by farmers. The agronomic performance of all seed samples indicated that the accessions from PGRRI had the highest plant height and total biomass followed by farmer-saved seeds from Kofi Nimo. 

 

 

Programme: 
MPhil