Seed coat keeps soil diseases, pests at bay

The Thika-based Real Integrated Pest Management (Real IPM) firm has developed a seed coat from a beneficial fungi, Trichoderma asperellum, which when coated on seeds protects them against soil-borne pests and diseases.

They include damping off, leaf blotch and gray mold, which are rampant in greenhouses. The beneficial fungi present in the seed coat offers several benefits to the seeds and germinating crops in general, for instance, controls soil-borne vermin, enables faster crops germination, promotion of good roots’ development and a stable roots’ system, as it can also be used as a bio-fertiliser.

The product can be easily applied to the seeds by farmers themselves on the farm. To apply it, one first sprinkles water onto the seeds to slightly wet them, then the seed-coat powder is added onto the seeds and mixed thoroughly to ensure they have an even coated.

The seeds are then dried under a shade for about 30 minutes before they are planted.

“The product is able to colonise the plant root system, preventing fungal attacks from the soil and also curbing the spread of nematodes,” says Isaac Guda, the smallholder enterprise manager at Real IPM, which collaborated with International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology on the product.