Improving the identification, handling and storage of “difficult” seeds ...

2.16. UGANDA presentation
Uganda National Genebank
Ms Eva Zaake
Supporting On-Farm management & improvement of PGRFA (question 2.1)
The program and activities in with local farmer communities in which our organization participates
include:
▪ Womens group and youth associations are invited to come to the garden for specific training in
aspects of propagation and conservation techniques especially in fruit trees, indigenous
vegetables and herbal medicine.
▪ Pest and disease project - this project promotes conservation and use of crop genetic diversity to
control pests and diseases in support of sustainable Agriculture in Uganda. It targets use of local
cultivars with high resistance to pests and diseases in the following target crops; Musa sp.,
Phaseolus vulgaris, Oryza sativa, Hordeum vulgare, Manihot esculentum among others. Its
major goal is to conserve crop diversity in ways that improves the ecosystem health and
increased food security.
▪ Development of a National Policy for Food and Agriculture for Uganda - the development of a
policy on PGRFA which fulfills the intentions of the international treaty for Plant Genetic
Resources. The policy development is on going in the country.
▪ Neglected and under utilized crop species - collection, conservation and documentation of
neglected and under utilized species which contribute considerably to food supply in certain
periods (e.g. indigenous fruits as well as there importance nutritionally in a well balanced diet
(e.g. indigenous vegetables).
▪ Community based management of on- farm Plant Genetic Resources - on-farm conservation of
food crops as a major contributor to conservation of PGR and best practices for conservation of
crop land races on farm e.g. Musa sp. conservation and utilization.
Germplasm storage facilities (question 5.3)
Presently in cold storage we have 21 samples of Sorghum sp., Eleusine sp, Pennisetum sp.,
Amaranthus sp. and Zea mays stored in both medium term and long term storage and several
samples of Amaranthus sp., Cleome gynandra, Solanum sp., Hibiscus sp. which are still under
processing. In the field we have Mondia whytei, Carissa edulis, Syzygium cordatum, Rhus vulgaris,
Landolphia dawei, and Saba comorensis, among others.
The types of storage used are:
▪ Medium-term storage for active collections which are used for characterizations, regeneration
and distribution, stored at -20ºC
▪ Long-term storage for base collections which are stored at -20ºC
▪ Field genebanks for conservation of vegetative material.
Drying facilities/methods
Seeds are dried using a drying cabinet. After extraction, germplasm is placed in muslin cloth bags
and spread on shelves inside a drying room for about a week. Collections are then transferred to the
drying cabinet and spread on racks for 3-4 weeks, depending on the amount of moisture in the
germplasm. The drying cabinet is set at a temperature of 15ºC and 10% RH and left to run non-stop
until the germplasm is dry.
Measuring seed moisture status
We routinely measure moisture content. A sensitive moisture analyzer is used. The machine is set
according to manual regulations and about 2g of seed is placed on a sample pan and set to start. The
final moisture content percentage is displayed after some minutes of running, which indicates the