SEED PRIMING LOOKS GOOD FOR SRI LANKA
FIELD TRIALS DELIVER OUTSTANDING RESULTS FOR BSN ON PADDY RICE

by RLF’s Distributor Partners in Sri Lanka, FERTIQA (part of OPEX Holdings)

Sri Lanka is an emerging market for RLF, and planning started early in 2014 to commence field trials to discover the effect of BSN seed priming treatment on the paddy-field cultivation of rice for Sri Lankan farms. This was the first time BSN had been formally and independently trialled on Sri Lankan sovereign soil.

Trials were conducted across three different Provinces – Eastern, North Central and Western Province, and RLF’s partner in Sri Lanka, Fertiqa, had no difficulty finding six individual farmers.

The priming treatment of the paddy seeds with BSN before sowing followed the same set procedure, and all farmers then followed a recommended fertiliser program as developed by the Department of Agriculture (Sri Lanka) for the entire crop cultivation season. Field observations were made at different crop growth stages and photographs taken as part of the permanent record.

This program is set out in a Product Evaluation Report proudly being released by RLF today.

Observations were made at the end of each growth stage and many benefits emerged from the seed treated with BSN over that of the Control seed. By the time of Harvest the following benefits were reported:

  • higher number of panicles per plant
  • higher number of seeds per panicle
  • higher number of filled grains per panicle
  • filled grains
  • less inert materials
  • shiny seeds
  • greater weight

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You can check out the other growth stages – Germination, Nursery, Reproductive and Tillering. The observations are all listed and the results bode well for the agricultural industry in Sri Lanka – an average trial yield increase
of 16.6%.