Seed Unit Activities

SEED UNIT FACILITIES

Seed Multiplication Fields
The Unit has about 25 hectares of land allocated to it at Tel-Hadya. The area is used for maintaining varieties and for producing limited quantities of seed of the ICARDA varieties for multiplication and for trials.

 

In addition some land is used for the applied research projects of the Unit. These plots for research, maintenance and production are also used for training. The crops grown are the ICARDA mandate crops such as cereals and legumes and some pastures and forage species (vetch, Lathyrus, Medics and Astragalus). 

Seed Processing Center
This consists of two parts. A large scale processing line with a capacity of 1.5 tonnes/hour for cereal seed, comprising an air-screen cleaner indented cylinders, a gravity separator and a seed treater. These machines can handle all the crops produced on the farm. The Center processes between 200-400 ton of seed per year. 

In an adjacent laboratory is a collection of small scale processing machines which are used to perform special separation and grading tasks on small samples. This area handles between 6000-10000 samples each year, mostly for genetic resources purposes. These small machines are also invaluable for training and demonstration purposes, as they employ the same principles of separation as are used on large machines.

Medium Term Seed Store
The Seed Unit manages this central store where most of the samples and larger seed lots are kept. It holds about 40000 samples and lots of seed from different Programs and Units. This shed was originally built as a machinery store and was subsequently converted to its present use.

Seed Testing Laboratory
This has all the necessary equipment and facilities of a seed-testing laboratory. It is used both for routine testing of samples of seed lots stored at ICARDA and for research and training purposes.
The laboratory is equipped with basic equipment and facilities for testing seed of different crops for various quality attributes including physical purity , germination capacity, moisture content, vigor etc. Some of the facilities include sampling and purity testing equipment (sample dividers, balances, diaphanoscopes, blowers and a weed collection) ,walk-in germination room, accelerated aging chamber and electrical conductivity tester. The laboratory is also used for training courses and research work. The administration office has computers and reference publications related to seed testing.