NEEM
NETWORK: PROCEDURES FOR
SEED COLLECTION AND EXCHANGE
(February
1995)
Prepared by
Mr. 0. Souvannavong, FAO, Italy and
Ms. K. Poulsen, Danida Forest Seed Centre, Denmark.
1
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this
booklet is to facilitate the smooth exchange of neem seed in the International
Neem Network. The valuable practical experience obtained from pilot seed
exchanges in 1993 and 1994 is presented in a summarized and easily accessible
manners. This experience may also be useful to other users.
- How to collect
and process seeds? Which quantity is needed?
- How to pack and
dispatch seeds?
- Which administrative/quarantine
documents are needed for import of seed in a particular country? Which
channel to use for dispatch from country A to country B? Whom to inform
of the dispatch? When? How? Which are the alternative communication
means?
- How to receive
the seeds? What needs to be done on receipt of the seeds?
The full-scale seed
collection and exchange will take place in 1995 for establishment of international
provenance trials in 1996. To collect seeds from 27 seed sources for exchange
among some 20 countries in 3 continents is quite a challenge for a 'normal'
forest tree species. This is even more so for a species such as Neem,
where the delay between seed collection and sowing should be kept under
1 month, because of the poor storability of the seeds.
It is stressed that
all the procedures presented im this booklet should be strictly followed
at every step. The final result will depend on how each of the successive
operations (collection, processing, dispatch, etc.) is done. Therefore
the publication should be distributed to all officers practically involved
in neem seed collection and dispatch in each country. It is the responsibility
of the national focal institution for the neem network to distribute
the booklet.
The following procedures
were agreed upon at the international neem consultation in Jodphur, India
in February 1994 and should be strictly adhered to by all networkers.
In order to include experiences from exchanges in 1994 a few adjustments
were made.
2 SEED COLLECTION
- Information on
seed sources to be collected from are found in annex A.
- Collect seed from
at least 25 trees; trees collected from should be at least 50 meters
apart.
- Collect. mature
green-yellow fruits. Avoid brown, completely green or damaged fruits.
- Collect. fruit
directly from the tree. Do not collect fallen fruit. Spread a cover
on the ground beneath the tree to avoid soil contact.
- Approximately
120 kg of fruit with pulp corresponding to 165 liters should be collected
per seed source (this corresponds roughly to 24 kg of clean stones/seeds
corresponding to around 48,000 stones/seeds)
- Collect approximately
equal amounts from each tree. (When 120 kg fruit is requested, and 40
trees can be collected from, then collect around 120/40=3 kg/tree corresponding
to 4 liters/tree).
- Keep fruits from
different trees separate during collection in order to check that amounts
collected per tree are approximately equal and to check no. of trees
collected from.
- Finally carefully
mix together fruits from all trees to make one bulk. (single tree collections
are not dispatched for provenance trials in the network).
- Use identification
tags through all steps of handling (one tag inside the bag another tag
outside, include on the tag: seed source name, number of trees collected
from, quantity collected, dates of collection)
3
SEED PROCESSING
Fruit and seed
are actively respiring and using oxygen, and should therefore never be
covered in air-tight material like elastic. Seed should be spread out
in a thin well aerated layer (i.e. not closely layered).
- The fruits should
be depulped within 48 h. Collected fruit will have different ripeness
stages and thus different colours. For the greenish fruits it is difficult
to remove the pulp manually. In order to soften the pulp the greenish
fruits can be picked out of the lot and after-ripened separately; they
are spread out in a 2-3 fruit thick layer in the shade, protected from
rain for 1-3 days and subsequently depulped (fruits must never be soaked!).
- After depulping,
carefully wash stones in running water and remove all flesh.
- Surface-dry the
seed for 1-2 days in the shade (protect from rain) in a windy well-ventilated
spot, if necessary use fans. Spread seed in a mono-layer on newspaper,
jute bags or similar material (not plastic!).
4 SEED PACKING, DISPATCH AND RECEIPT
- Apply a small
dose of fungicide.
- THE SEED MUST
BE SHIPPED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE !!!
- Seed is packed
in cotton bags with 0.5-1 kg of seed per bag. Each bag carries
a tag inside as well as outside containing the following information:
country, seed source name, number of trees collected from, quantity
of seed in bag, dates of collection.
- Seed source name
should he the name found in the table in annex A emphasized by fat types.
- Pack the cotton
bags in a cardboard box and nake holes in the box for aeration. In order
to allow aeration do not cram the bags into the box.
- Phytosanitary
certificates are required for all seedlots to all countries.
- Import requirements
and contact addresses for dispatch are found in annex B.
- Dispatch channels
and amounts to dispatch through each channel are found in annex C.
- Receiving institute
should always be notified by fax about: date and time of arrival, flight
no., name, phone, fax, address of delivering agent, air way bill (AWS)
no. or delivery note no.
- The shipping agent
should guarantee temperatures above 15ºC during transport. Never
put fruit/seed in the refrigerator (temperatures below l5ºC may
not be tolerated).
- Based on collection
period details etc. in table B, receiving networkers should request
import permits in advance, as they will not get notice of arrival of
seed in time to get the import permit.
- When the seed
is received, it should be sown in the nursery as soon as possible. Sow
the stones as they are, i.e. do not try to remove the hard layer.
- After receipt
notify the sender and FAO that seed has been received.