KNOWLEDGE CENTRE

2020-07-15 10:50:39 AM
What is the true value of a bag of certified Sensako seed?

The blue ear tag label emblazoned with the RSA coat-of-arms and the words “SA Certified Seed” attached to a bag of Sensako seed, is the guarantee a farmer receives that the seed has been certified at more than 90 control sites of the independent National Seed Certification body, SANSOR, for genetic variety, purity and identity. This includes field inspections, inspections at processing plants and laboratory testing. In this way Sensako ensures that the farmer receives breeder quality seed with a complete isolation production history, constantly recognised high quality characteristics as well as yield potential, which combines perfectly with present-day risk management of precision farming methods. 

 

The knife edge ability to monitor every plant in a land by means of sophisticated satellite, drone and sensor data collection to measure its performance, creates a new future in which the true potential of certified seed may surprise the commercial producer because the possibility exists today to fertilise and execute efficient weed and disease control during every growing stage of the plant. This makes it all the more sensible to invest in certified seed from Sensako. 

 

The yield expectation with which the farmer buys Sensako seed is vested in the exceptional ability of the seed to exploit and benefit from the full value of all other production inputs. With fast, disease-free germination, vigorous emergence and development through all growing stages, Sensako seed gives the farmer a uniform plant population stand which facilitates weed and disease control, as well as eventual harvesting. Apart from the fact that the seed – before certified multiplication – was tested in extensive Sensako trial plot research tests, demonstration plots were already planted in the wheat-growing areas where wheat growers could inspect the performance of certified cultivar seed under their own climate conditions. 

 

For the farmer Sensako seed promises, inter alia: The suitability for early and late planting; broad adaptability to different soil and climatic conditions; excellent disease-tolerant characteristics; and uniform ripening with sought after kernel form, size and colour which means that every seed becomes a profitable plant factory. 

 

This carries a strong message: Select a seed for planting according to the qualities expected by the consumer of grain products. The price which the consumer is willing to pay for quality products produced from quality input determines the profit the farmer will make on his seed investment to yield a bountiful harvest. It is on the grading scale where the profit in rand and cent separates the harvest gain on certified seed from the also-rans. 

 

Although seed represents one of the lesser investments in the cultivation of a bumper crop, it is also true that seed quality is the biggest determining factor of when the day comes to free the harvesting machines from their long, idle rest during the off-season. Seen in the bigger picture other input costs are so overwhelming that it simply makes no sense not to bargain on the best certified seed with the biggest yield potential and a proven performance record to deliver that bumper crop. 

 

Most of the recommended certified seed cultivars in this Seed Guide are now PBR (Plant Breeders’ Rights)-protected. This is an intellectual property right granted to breeders of new plant varieties to protect those varieties against exploitation without permission.