South East Asian Wild Buffalo

Nepali Name : Arna

English Name: Bubalus bubalis arnee

There are 5 species of Arna all over  south east Asia  in Nepal, India, Bhutan, Cambodia, SriLanka, Thailand and Philippines. It is found on the areas with abundant water, grass and riverside forest. Wetlands are also its important habitat areas. They can be active for grazing twice a day morning and evening and sometimes night also. They can attack agricultural field also. They like to live on herds. They are found to have a lifespan of about 8 years. They are distinguished from the domestic buffalo by its larger size, larger horns. But the obvious feature determining the wild from domestic is its horn which can be up to 198 cms.

Seed Certification

The seeds after being collected and before being stored or used has to accompany a certificate giving the information like the species, date of collection of the seed, locality factors like the elevation, aspects, climatic and soil conditions, characteristics of the mother trees, method of collection, processing, method of storage, name of the collecting person, quantity of seed, date of dispatch, condition of seed at the time of dispatch, etc.

Importance

It ensures the germination percentage which help to estimate the quantity of seeds required to produce the desired number of seedlings of given species.

It is useful for provenance test as the observation of growth pattern and availability of seedlings and trees grown from seeds of various provenances will provide the knowledge of fitness of the provenance for the plantation of given site of certain species.

It helps to achieve the objective of plantation by predicting the quality and form of the products of the trees.

Besides it also helps in knowing the quality of the   mother trees, vigorous of the growth and the degree of suitability to the site of plantation.

Storage of seeds

Storage of seeds is essential to meet the demands of seeds having right physiological and genetic characteristics during all the time.The objective of the proper storage is to maintain the viability of seeds for longer period. It helps to maintain the longevity as well. Several Species  Leguminosae and Malvaceae families have high longevity.

The methods of control of oxygen, moisture content and temperature that reduces the rate of respiration without otherwise damaging  the seed is likely to be effective in extending the longevity during storage. Seeds stored under good conditions and which have maintained higher germinative capacity can safely be used but it is not good to use seed lot in which the germinative capacity has been severely curtailed. Insects has also to be taken care of. Suitable insecticides regularly has to be used to avoid any insect damage. Cold storage facility also provide longevity. Silica gel is used to keep moisture content of 7 to 9 percent  in impermeable containers .

Seed Processing of Forest Trees

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 The objective of Seed Processing is to produce good quality seeds for sowing. The Processes are Pre-cleaning, Pre-curing, Cleaning.

Pre-cleaning involves cleaning of twigs, barks, leaf litter and other impurities before they are sent for extraction. It can be done by hand and by flotation and fruits be separated by blowing and winnowing.

Pre-curing involves the deliberate storage for ripening of seeds and slow air drying of seeds/fruits.

Cleaning of sound seeds from impurities can be done by screening and sieving,sorting,winnowing,flotation. Screening and sieving remove almost all impurities which have different size than the hole in sieve or screen. Sorting according to length may remove longer and shorter impurities. Cleaning by winnowing is a common practice.Likewise, Flotation method can be used to separate out impurities having different specific gravity than that of seed.