Collection, Treatment, Strorage of seeds

Abstract

The growth rate of Kenya's population results in an expansion of agricultural acreage and an exponentially increased need for timber, firewood and charcoal, fodder, erosion-control, water catchments and other enviromental effects of planting trees. It is estimated that Kenya's wood consumption exceeded the increment of the resources by 4.3 million tonnes per year (BEIJER INSTITUTE cited in OWlNO , 1988). The demand for woodfuel and the supply projections to the year 2005 indicate a shortfall of 27.5 million tonnes (GATHAARA, 1988). OWINO (1988) judges the increase in the number of trees grwon in maturity to be almost 10 fold to provide the services. One of the basic requirements to meet these needs is the large scale production of vigorous and locally adapted plants derived from seeds of high quality and defined provenances (RODE, 1988).