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 Enquiries SEED News - mar/apr 2007
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This section is coordinated by the professors from the Federal University of Pelotas-Brazil, with the objective of answering the inquiries sent by the readers.
Send your question to e-mail: silmar@seednews.inf.br
"I enjoyed the main article on SEED News last issue, about the ability to negotiate important agreements in the seed sector. The author was very skilled in analyzing the role of each participant within the sector in reading an equilibrium that satisfies all parties. I would appreciate a comment on the differences and standpoints of the parties, on this issue."
There are many actors involved in the seed business, anywhere in the world, and all struggling for success in their area. This explains why, even when sharing the same interest, conflict may arise. To set a clear example, there is a wide consensus that everybody's interest is placed on achieving an increase in the rate of commercial seed usage. This implies the payment of royalties to breeders and, at times, views on the amount of these royalties and collection schemes are the subject of quite a bit of controversy.
"Seed quality as well as that from of any cultivar has always been a key factor in success, in my view. This considered their impact on related activities, such as field crops or seed companies. As from sometime onwards, I've been hearing comments that this is not always the case. Could you please give your view on this?"
For today's standards any company dealing with low quality seeds is bound to disappear in the short term. However, this doesn't mean that companies struggling to keep their position in the business won't be able to offer lower-than-standard seed lots at convenient prices. This is the case for some forage seed lots that exhibit low purity values as well as those situations in which low technology for farmers engage in practices such as planting 2-3 corn seeds per hill, absence of fertilizer application and harvesting late, all of which is inappropriate for a simple hybrid of corn, as the one in the example. Finally, it is important to stress that fortunately, the above situation is more an exception than a rule.
"Germplasm banks are essential to safety maintain the seeds that could eventually solve extreme problems sometime in the future. I understand that countries with strong agricultural tradition all have germplasm banks. I would like to know how these seeds are stored and kept as well as how frequently are quality tests performed on the former."
In fact, germplasm banks are an excellent source to improve species cultivars and practically every country in which the agribusiness is relevant runs at least one of these institutions. The process of storing seeds starts with their packing in waterproof containers of around 2000 seeds and placement under ambient conditions of -5°C temperature and seed moisture content than 7%. Under these conditions, seeds will remain viable for, approximately, 20 years, period that can be variable depending on the species, since some like onion are short-lived whereas rice is a specie with persistent seeds.
"The possibility to obtain two harvests of corn per crop year increases the income to the farmer, but it could be in conflict with the normal development of the soybean crop in a crop rotation scheme. How could the grower overcome this inconvenience?"
It is well known that a double sequence of corn in a crop field can determine a severe increase on the incidence of the disease. Thus, it is recommended that a rotation be planned, in which the soybean phase not only supplies nitrogen to the soil but also reduces the risk of disease. Soybean cultivars can be categorized as easily, intermediate or late flowering, so that growers who will plant corn right after the soybean harvest should focus on soybean cultivars that are early flowering, or in other words, have a very short growth cycle. This is one of the main reasons why demand for soybean seed from early flowering cultivars is on the rise.
"The government has important functions on agribusiness regulation, be it the credit system, legislation, and infrastructure, among others. Could you explain how can the government help facilitate the use of GMOs so that the people can benefit from them?"
As in with other areas, the government's function in the agribusiness is relevant. Specifically in the case of GMO, the legislative action overlaps, since different actors from the society can hold conflicting stands, even if they share similar interests. In Brazil the use of GMO is still slow-paced, so that at times and due to the expectation on these type of crops, small groups of growers have imported seeds from GM Groups which haven't been released yet to public use.
"During the process of seed cleaning and grading, an important volume of undesirable material may be removed from the seed lot, thus not being able to be sold as seed. Could you establish the extent of this loss?"
High quality seed normally shows a low volume of undesirable material, such that regular purity values are up 99%. To reach that level, the material undergoes processing by different machines, each removing a specific type of impurity. It's not easy to quantify the loss during cleaning and grading, however we can take as a rule of thumb that for every 1% of undesirable material, 2% - 4% of quality seed is lost. One more comment: High losses do not necessarily mean the seed lot will be of high quality.
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