Seed Co Zimbabwe managing director Denias Zaranyika
DUE to the unbearable and unfavourable climatic changes in Africa and the unpredictable weather patterns occasioned by the El Nino phenomenon, Seed Co Zimbabwe last week launched four new maize varieties.
Seed Co is one of the country’s leading seed manufacturers, and every year its qualified breeders always come up with newer varieties that can withstand unpredictable weather conditions brought about by climate change.
Addressing farmers gathered at Rattary Arnold Research Station in Shamva, Seed Co sales and marketing manager Irvin Craig said climate change had become a huge challenge to farmers and threatened national and household food security.
“The issue of climate change is of great concern to seed companies. Our mandate as Seed Co is to produce seed that could yield better results and also seeds that are drought resistant,” said Craig
Seed Co Zimbabwe managing director Denias Zaranyika announced that the company had introduced a new range of maize varieties to counter effects of the consistent droughts being experienced in the country.
In the four- series, Seed Co introduced SC417 is a flint grain type, with good drought tolerance and thick cobs and SC419 is the highest 400 series yielder with very white grain, excellent drought tolerance and widely adaptable and fast dry down rate.
In the early maturity range SC529 remains the highest yielder in the 500 series. Furthermore, the new additions to the 6-series include the SC649 and the SC643 which both have excellent drought tolerance and widely adaptable, moreover, the SC643 exhibits good nitrogen use efficiency.
“I have no doubt that you have found these newer varieties offering exciting propositions for your farming operations,” Zaranyika said.
“It is from the feedback that we get from meeting with you at for such as these that we get both the inspiration and direction on our research efforts. We truly value all the feedback that we get from you as this helps us in our research efforts as well as other spheres of our operations,” he added.
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