TITLE:
Traditional Seed Systems and Seed-Borne Pest and Pathogen Management of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) around Mount Cameroon
AUTHORS:
Frederick Tilili Moleye
KEYWORDS:
Okra Seed Systems, Seed-Borne Pathogens, Botanical Seed Treatment, Farmer Seed-Saving, Mount Cameroon
JOURNAL NAME:
Agricultural Sciences,
Vol.17 No.11,
November
4,
2026
ABSTRACT: Unavailability of high-quality seed constrains okra (Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench) production in sub-Saharan Africa, where most farmers depend on informal, farmer-saved seed. A survey of 94 farmers across nine villages around Mount Cameroon characterised traditional seed sourcing, viability-testing, storage and disposal practices, while a parallel bioassay compared seed-health outcomes of farmer-saved versus researcher-produced seed treated with five locally available botanicals (Azadirachta indica, Capsicum annuum, Carica papaya, Lantana camara, Vernonia amygdalina), a synthetic dressing (Calthio C, positive control) and an untreated control. Most farmers (96%) sourced seed by saving part of the previous harvest (48% exclusively), tested viability by water floatation (86.2%), and stored seed in jute bags in barns (85.1%). Own-produced seed had markedly better baseline quality than farmer-saved seed (germination 60.2% vs 15.0%; moisture 11.7% vs 14.7%; 100-seed weight 4.44 g vs 5.65 g). Separate within-source analyses described treatment and storage-time effects; a seed-source-by-treatment interaction was not established. For own-produced seed, reported mean germination was 34.0% for Calthio C, 34.9% for untreated seed, 33.6% for Capsicum annuum and 31.9% for Azadirachta indica, with the lowest value for Vernonia amygdalina (21.4%). Seed-borne bacterial load differed significantly among treatments (Kruskal-Wallis H = 17.94, P = 0.003) and seed sources (H = 8.72, P = 0.003); only Calthio C fully suppressed bacterial and fungal recovery, while Azadirachta indica and Lantana camara supported the highest fungal isolation frequencies, predominantly Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melongenae. Mean damaged-seed counts across seven treatment entries were 7.43 for farmer-saved and 2.57 for own-produced seed (reported t = 2.75, P = 0.019). Capsicum annuum did not outperform untreated seed in the reported germination comparisons, and shared Tukey grouping does not establish equivalence to Calthio C. Seed-source differences cannot be attributed specifically to storage because species composition and production history were not controlled.