ASSESSMENT OF THE QUALITY OF MARKETED CERTIFIED VEGETABLE SEEDS IN ORIGINAL PACKAGE AND THOSE REPACKAGED AT RETAILERS’ END IN THE ASHANTI REGION OF GHANA
ABSTRACT:
The use of quality seed is a prerequisite for high vegetable productivity. The Ghana Seed Inspection Division conducts seed quality assessment to ensure that seeds meet minimum quality standards before they are certified to be sold to farmers. Poor seed storage practices and repackaging of certified seeds at retailers’ end could adversely affect seed quality before farmers purchase these for planting. Post-certification surveillance was undertaken to assess the quality of certified vegetable seeds in their original package and those that were repackaged at commercial retailers’ end in the Ashanti Region to ascertain the quality of vegetable seeds that would eventually end up with farmers for planting. Structured questionnaires were administered to 25 commercial vegetable seed retailers who constituted the main vegetable seed delivery channels to farmers across the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Survey data was analysed to ascertain vegetable seed retailers’ knowledge and practices on the handling of certified vegetable seeds and to determine marketing challenges retailers faced in their operations. Survey results indicated that retailers were educated, and had adequate knowledge and experience in the handling of certified seeds. Retailers’ major marketing challenges were seed pricing in relation to farmers’ dissatisfaction with the cost of seeds, lack of cold storage facilities, farmers’ dissatisfaction with seed package sizes being too small or too large, and poor access to credit facilities. Thirty vegetable seed samples, out of which 15 were in their original containers and 15 had been repackaged into transparent plastic bags were initially sampled from 22 retail shops for seed quality tests at the National Seed Testing Laboratory of the Ghana Seed Inspection Division. Following the first sampling, 3 specific vegetable seeds, each in original container and repackaged form, common to 3 retail shops were sampled for another evaluation. Both laboratory evaluations were arranged in a Completely Randomized Design with 4 replications and evaluated for percentage purity, moisture content, percentage germination, seedling vigour, and seed health. Data collected from both laboratory tests were analysed using Genstat statistical package 12th Edition. Fishers’ Protected LSD was used to separate treatment means at 5% significance level. Results from the laboratory analysis indicated that with the exception of 6 out of the 30 seed samples, both seeds in original package and those repackaged had germination percentages and vigour indices that were within minimum quality standards. All but 5 seed samples also had purity percentages that were within minimum quality standards. Twenty (20) of the 30 seed samples had moisture contents above the acceptable maximum moisture content of 8%. High seed moisture content and decline in seed viability of some samples were attributed to the poor storage conditions witnessed at retail shops such as high temperature (29.0 0C – 36.9 0C) and high relative humidity (40% - 64%). Two storage fungi, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus, were found to be associated with 13 out the 30 seed samples. Seeds in original package had mean percentage purity, mean moisture content, mean germination percentage, mean vigour index, and fungal prevalence to be 98.43%, 8.82%, 83.20%, 10.23 and 33.3% respectively whilst those repackaged had mean percentage purity, mean moisture content, mean germination percentage, mean vigour index, and fungal prevalence to be 95.78%, 8.91%, 77.70%, 9.28 and 53.33% respectively. These findings indicated that seed repackaging had adverse effect on vegetable seed quality.
ASSESSMENT OF THE QUALITY OF MARKETED CERTIFIED VEGETABLE SEEDS IN ORIGINAL PACKAGE AND THOSE REPACKAGED AT RETAILERS’ END IN THE ASHANTI REGION OF GHANA