A seed story

Sébastien Vidal, farmer in Puy-de-Dôme, president of the 4th seed company in the world, the Limagrain cooperative.

© Sayouba Traoré/RFI

By: Sayouba Traore

2 mins

A seed is the very first input in agricultural production.

It's a story that dates back to the beginnings of the practice of agriculture by mankind, more than 10,000 years ago.

It may not seem like much, but it is not easy to define a seed.

Everyone has noticed that during harvest, farmers retain the largest ears bearing the best seeds, to sow the following agricultural season.

Advertising

The difficulty is to determine according to which criteria to select a seed that will perform well.

And it's not just the seeds.

Crops such as bananas, for example, produce offshoots at the base of the plant.

It is this offshoot that is taken to plant further.

Seeds are therefore seeds, or other reproductive organs (bulbs, tubers, etc.), selected to be sown.

During the last breeding summit in Clermont-Ferrand, we tried to trace this story with specialists in the field.

First the seed companies.

It is a long and expensive job.

You have to find the right seed, the seed that will be adapted to my type of soil, and that will be adapted to my land, that is to say the climate, plant diseases and crop pests.

Sébastien Vidal, farmer in Puy-de-Dôme, president of the 4th seed company in the world, the Limagrain cooperative.

© Sayouba Traoré/RFI

Then, the technicians who do applied agricultural research.

Their job is to help agricultural producers, their organizations and companies in the sector to solve all the technical, technical-economic, societal and environmental problems that arise when using a new seed.

Guests

-

Sébastien Vidal,

farmer in Puy-de-Dôme, president of the world's 4th largest seed company, the Limagrain cooperative

- 

Chloé Malaval Juery,

Auvergne regional engineer, Arvalis-Plant Institute.

Producer: Sayouba Traore

Director: Ewa Piedel.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Agriculture and Fishing

  • France

On the same subject

Africa report

Chad: research for seeds capable of coping with climate change [1/7]

Great report

Improved seeds, peasant seeds: which seed for Malian agriculture?

It's not windy

Seeds: a food sovereignty issue!