Seed producer, a profession in its own right
Seed quality determines the success of production and flowering the following season. Every seed user, whether private or professional, wants the seeds used to germinate well and produce the expected product. These requirements require the expertise and technical expertise of seed growers and seed-promoting farmers.
1. Why is seed production carried out by professionals?
Seed production is also called seed-bearing cultivation. It requires time, technical expertise, and know-how. The goal is to produce quality seed, i.e., seed that germinates well and corresponds to the desired variety. To achieve this, various parameters must be monitored in the field (variety isolation, field cleanliness), at harvest (crop moisture, seed maturity, combine harvester settings, specific harvesting and cleaning tools to be used), and during storage (stable and appropriate humidity and temperature, germination control).
Producing seeds in your garden for your own consumption is possible. However, this requires a specially dedicated area, a large number of plants, and knowledge of the variety's reproduction (beware of crossbreeding between varieties and with wild species!). Sometimes gardeners have surprises with their own seeds: seeds that don't germinate, plants that differ from the original... Professional seed production helps avoid these difficulties!
2. What are the differences with consumer production?
Seed production requires flowering, bolting of the crop, and harvesting the seed at maturity. For some species, this corresponds to the harvest stage for consumption (squash, melon, and tomato seeds are harvested from very ripe fruit). For others, the seed requires an additional year of production: these are biennial species (carrots, beets, and endives only flower the year following sowing, so harvesting takes place about twelve months after sowing). For some species, particularly those with umbel-shaped flowers, such as carrots, the seeds do not mature at the same time: a staggered harvest is necessary. To facilitate weeding, seed densities are lower in seed production. Seed crops are monitored: field inspections are used to verify compliance with isolation standards, the absence of weeds, and the absence of plants of a different variety.
The technicality and regulations implemented for the cultivation of seed crops are therefore very different from those of market gardening crops whose final product is the vegetable.
3. Producing seeds: a profession in its own right.
Seed companies, seed distributors, mainly produce their seeds for seed-producing farmers. These productions are carried out under contract between the seed company and the farmer. This contract meets the regulatory and technical requirements of seed production, with the following objectives: the quality of the seeds produced, technical support for the farmer, and protection of the seed user. Farmer-producing farmers master these specialized productions: crop monitoring, staggered harvesting, specific harvesting and threshing tools, and seed pre-cleaning. The seed company ensures technical monitoring, cleaning, sorting, storage, and recycling of the seeds produced.
The particularity of the seed sector in its organization and its technical requirements, assure users of quality seeds.
