Quality on Wheels: PETKUS and GIZ deliver mobile seed plant to Burkina Faso
13.07.2016Small plant with big impact, as at the end of the project the compact mobile PETKUS seed plant will supply more than 15,000 rice and sesame farmers with enhanced seed. Nowadays, post-harvest losses amount to 35%, and only 17% of the farmers use certified seed. As a result, poor emergence and inhomogeneous canopies with uneven ripening reduce yields.
Within in the scope of the program „Green Innovation Centres for the Agriculture and Food Sector“, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and executed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), PETKUS delivered one of its proven mobile seed plants. The centrepiece of the compact mobile plant with a capacity of 2 t/h is the K 531 cleaner with integrated indented cylinders and bagging-off possibilities as well as a chemical treater. “Every year, 1,000 tonnes of enhanced rice seed and 500 tonnes of sesame seed should be produced, cleaned and bagged”, summarized Katy Schröder, Head of the Green Innovation Centre in Burkina Faso. “In addition, the project will train more the 1,000 seed producer until December 2017.”
The innovation partnership between GIZ, PETKUS and the local seed processing company NAFASO, who is operating the plant, aim to establish and consolidate a seed technology centre around Bobo-Dioulasso. From there, the mobile seed plant will be send around to farmers’ places. Furthermore, the agronomy school CAP-Matourkou will be supported to integrate seed technology into their curriculum. NAFASO will also provide seed for the practical trainings on the mobile plant.
Further information: https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/32209.html (Newsletter 07/2016)