Seeders Program

From Peace Corps Wiki

The Seeders program works to exchange forestry and agricultural seeds between volunteers in Panama.

Vision of the Seeders Project

• To provide agricultural/forestry seeds to all nine providences where PCVs live, through regional meeting exchanges and individual PCV visits to office seed bank.

Objectives of the Seeders Project

• To provide green manure seeds to support soil conservation, (such as Carnivalia and Macunna).

• To provide agricultural seeds to support home garden and demonstration plots, (such as tomato, pepper, cucumber, squash, and bean).

• To provide forestry seeds, including native and exotic tree species to support in timber plantation, aqueduct reforestation, and agro forestry systems, (such as Caoba, Roble, Arcasia, Guacapali).

For every regional meeting the seeders group supplies forestry and agricultural seeds (tomato, cucumber, radish, etc) in a tackle box to exchange with other volunteers. When leaving seeds in the box remember to add the following information about the seeds:

• What type of seed

• Who collected the seed

• Where was the seed collected

• Date of collection

More information on Seed Saving and Collecting

- Why to save seeds

- Seed viability and storage

- Which plants to harvest for seed

- Harvesting seed

- Cleaning and drying

- Testing for dryness

- Selecting seeds

- Recording and labeling seeds

- Storing seeds

- Monitoring saved seeds

- Germination tests

- Seed Banks