MBAZARD I installs a seed sorting facility to serve the community.
Mbarara ZARDI has unveiled a 300kg per hour capacity seed sorting facility. The facility presents a new dawn in the seed industry in South Western Uganda.The sorting function that has previously been done manually is now mechanized cutting the time used for these activities in half.
Dr. Halid Kirunda, the Director of Research noted that the facility will greatly support the seed industry within the South Western Agro Ecological zone of Uganda.
“We have previously supported these groups with training in different areas. Agronomy, marketing, even management. We have now gone further to introduce a seed sorting facility which cuts the labor costs of sorting.
Dr. Sekabunga Nicholas the Farm Manager at Mbarara ZARDI notes that the facility is already functional, doing the seed sorting work for the institute. He states
“We are yet to fill the capacity of the machine but so far, it is doing all the sorting of seed produced at the institute.”
The machine is able to sort 300kgs an hour and produce perfectly clean seed. Apart from sorting, the facility also has a maize sheller, seed dryer and other components needed to produce high quality seed.
Growing quality seed begins at purchase of seed and land preparation. However, post-harvest handling has been a challenge for many farmers producing inferior seed because of hand sorting. Machine sorting guarantees cleaner seed with less labor.
The project is not only about supporting the community but also aims to generate non-tax revenue and quality seed. Dr. Sekabunga notes,
“One of the biggest benefit is that we shall be able to generate non-tax revenue both through sorting the seed brought by farmers and sorting our own Institute grown seed. This is a great boost for our seed production as an Institute.”