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Seed Processing

MAJITAR SEED PROCESSING UNIT

The Food Security & Agri. Dev. Department has one Seed Processing Unit at Majitar and one at Jorethang (South). Throughout the year seed processing is done and it is the routine work of the Department Seed processing is and important phase of certification process and is responsible for upgrading seed quality by removing foreign materials inert matter, undersized seeds, off-sized and deteriorated / damaged seeds.

Certified seeds are being produced in the Farmers field and in Govt. Farms of the State Govt. for the last seven years under the supervision of the officer of the department following the guidelines and norms of the Seed Act 1966. The Seed from the South and West district are brought to the Seed Processing Unit at Jorethang Unit for processing and certification.

 

SEED PROCESSING UNIT AT JORETHANG

Seeds are precious and primary inputs for cultivation. So full care is necessary for production, handling, processing, analysis and storage. As such for certified/ foundation seeds production programme to succeed, establishment of seed processing/ storage unit is a must.

One modern seed processing unit with a cold storage facility of 40 MT capacities has been established at Jorethang, South Sikkim. This programme has been tied up with the certified seed production programme of the Department. Facility of Pre- cleaning, Grading, Drying and safe storage in cold store with controlled humidity has been provided. This unit conforms to any other established modern seed Processing Plant in India. The Unit consists of the following:

1. COLD STORE WITH DEHUMIDIFIERS: The cold storage with dehumidifiers is necessary to maintain the germination % age and viability of seeds over a long period of time. The temperature in the seed store is to be maintained at the range of 15⁰c to 20⁰c at all times The storage unit is so designed as to store the seeds in optimum Temperature and Relative Humidity. The relative humidity of Sikkim is very high (above 80% always), so the store is equipped with dehumidifiers so as to tackle the problems of high humidity in the region…The cooling system and the dehumidifiers are fully automatic with auto cut facilities.

2. Seed Dryer: Being a high rainfall area with high RH. The seeds brought to the processing unit normally has a very high moisture percentage (usually above 20%), hence drying to a safe storage moisture content is very important. The drier provided in the unit has a capacity of 500 kgs per batch.

3. Screen Grader-The seeds brought from the farmers have high percentage of impurities. They need to be pre-cleaned and graded for uniformity in quality, size etc. The Grader provided at the seed Processing Unit at Majitar has a capacity of IMT per hour (based on wheat).

4. Generator: The temperature at the Cold Store need to be maintained low at all times with controlled humidity of around 45% Hence to meet any eventuality arising out of power failure, a 63-KVA generator set of Kirloskar make has been provided for power back up

The steps involved in processing of seeds are as follows:

The Certified seeds brought from the farmer’s field have high percentage of impurities.
They need to be pre-cleaned by removing undersized seeds, off- sized seed, thrash, deteriorated and damaged seeds and graded for uniformity in sized and quality. The grader provided at SPU has grading capacity of 1 MT per hr. on the basis of wheat.

Sikkim being the high rainfall area with high RH (above 80%), the seeds brought to the processing unit normally has high percentage of moisture (above 20%).  They need to be dried to safe moisture percentage (< 12%) is very important. The seed processing unit have one seed dryer which has the capacity to dry 500 kgs per batch( on the basis of wheat) The temperature of seed dyer is maintained at the range of 40-45 degree at all times.

SEED DRYER

(500 Kg/batch on the basis of wheat)

After drying seeds are bagged, sealed and affixed the certification tag on the seed bag. These seed bags are then stored in the cold storage Unit so as to maintain the germination percentage & viability of seeds over a long period of time.

Cold storage (20 MT Capacity)

The cold storage unit at Majitar has storage capacity of 20 MT with cooling system and dehumidifiers which are fully automatic with auto cut facilities. The temperature in the seed store is maintained at the range of 15-2OC and the relative humidity is maintained at the range of 55-60% at all times.