VARIETAL SELECTION: KEY PROFITABILITY UNLOCKER IN VEGETABLE FARMING

Vegetable farming is a business and varietal selection plays a crucial role in unlocking its profitability. It is one of the earliest and most important decisions a vegetable grower makes at the onset of every planting window. A grower must live with this single decision all season long from seed sowing all the way to produce marketing.

The key elements to take note of when choosing a vegetable seed variety are yield potential, produce quality, response to management, uniformity of performance and market acceptance. Region or climate specific factors are of paramount importance as well and these include time to maturity, disease resistance and stress tolerance. From this standpoint, Seed Co Vegetables, through its extensive research, has introduced hybrid varieties that exhibit most of the aforementioned factors suited for a wide range of Zimbabwean climates.

Another very important factor that is variety-centric is the ability of a vegetable crop variety to be produced outside of its traditional planting window. This property alone has the potential to increase the return a grower can earn after marketing. A notable example is that of Dina F1 and Ada F1, two onion varieties that Seed Co Vegetables markets. These can be grown in summer for early winter harvest. Traditionally, onion plantings are known to start from

Mid-March until end of June. The two aforementioned onion varieties can be transplanted from Mid-January which will allow the growers to start marketing their onions from end of April to mid-May when the supply will still be relatively low and the produce prices will be very ideal.

Seed Co Vegetables has Sales Agronomists in all the provinces of Zimbabwe who can offer after sales support. Thus, any current or prospective Seed Co Vegetables farmers that have any enquiries can get in touch with their respective agronomist for assistance. For any quick WhatsApp enquiries, you can get in touch with the Digital Desk on +263 785 883 702.

Article By:

Francis B. Mapindani

Seed Co Vegetables Sales Agronomist – Mashonaland East

0778138897

 AND

Brian Nyandoro

Seed Co Vegetables Product Development Assistant

0779270369