AFGHANISTAN SEED AND CROP IMPROVEMENT SITUATION

XII. STRATEGY AND APPROACHES FOR IMPROVEMENT

XII.4. STRATEGY FOR RAPID UPGRADE OF PROCESSING AND STORAGE

XII.4.1. ICARDA'S EFFORTS TO IMPROVE SEED CONDITIONING

ICARDA has had many years involvement in seed production/conditioning/marketing, and is bringing this to bear on Afghanistan's needs. ICARDA is developing a small but complete portable seed cleaner for wheat, which includes air blast cleaning, screen sizing, length grading, and treating.

As an emergency measure, ICARDA reportedly is establishing 6 sites for seed cleaning, using traditional methods supplemented by some modern bagging equipment. These will later be improved and established as seed cleaning facilities at appropriate locations.

ICARDA should not rehabilitate facilities of the ISE and other cooperators with FAO. FAO plans, and reportedly has funds (Tunwar) to renew these facilities. ICARDA should continue its present firm policy of working in areas where FAO has not been working, and not become involved with FAO cooperator-IP's (Implementing Partners).

XII.4.2. SEED TREATING

Most seed is treated with fungicides; FAO staff reported that even seed cleaned by traditional methods within organized seed programs is treated by hand traditional methods. Vitavax is reportedly the common fungicide used to treat wheat seed.

Care should be exercised in exposing workers to treatment chemicals for prolonged periods. Short periods of exposure such as a farmer treating his own small quantity of seed, if handled carefully, pose little risk. However, continued traditional treatment of seed by workers may result in health problems. If traditional methods are used, they should be restricted to safer methods such as the tumbling drum mounted at an angle on a hand-turned shaft.

Reported local methods of seed treatment all use dry dust treatment, not slurry. Seed are treated by:

The tumbling drum method or a hand-powered cement mixer type machine.
Spreading the seed out on a concrete floor, sprinkling the treatment powder over it, and then stirring/shoveling the seed to mix the treatment.
Putting seed and treatment into a bag, then pouring this back and forth into different bags, for several times.

Either method would be suitable for ICARDA's emergency seed operations. Because of the quantity involved, the 2nd or 3rd method above will probably be best.

XII.4.3. EXISTING FACILITIES

FAO reports that it established one stationary seed plant and eight portable facilities. It also reports that most of these have been heavily looted. Only the stationary plant at Herat is reportedly undamaged, and other plant is only partially looted.

FAO works closely with the ISE (Improved Seed Enterprise) and has been responsible for establishing and operating their processing facilities. This is FAO's program and area of operations. Under no circumstances should FHC/ICARDA attempt to rehabilitate or become involved in their processing and other operations. There is ample scope for services in Afghanistan without "stepping on the toes" of other programs.

FAO facilities, previously, apparently provided only the capacity needed by the FAO-assisted seed program. In the present circumstances, it must be short of processing capacity. Therefore, FHC/ICARDA should seek to establish and operate its own seed cleaning operations.

Thus, there are essentially no processing facilities currently available to the ICARDA-assisted seed supply system. ICARDA and other assistance agencies, and to a lesser extent, FAO, must arrange for their seed processing needs.

XII.4.4. NEEDS

XII.4.4.1. Types of Equipment

Dryers are not needed. Needed are the basic cleaners for cereal seed, the air-screen cleaner and length separator. Because of the prevalence of crop diseases, treaters are needed. Bagging-weighing equipment is needed, as are equipment (hand bag trucks, bag conveyors, forklifts, pallets/frames, etc.) to handle bagged seed.

XII.4.4.2. Organized Seed Programs

Organized seed programs such as ICARDA is establishing, should carefully identify their production areas and the amounts of seed which will be produced in each area. ICARDA is apparently still in the process of identifying these, as this information has not been available.

At such locations, ICARDA should establish a minimal but complete stationary seed processing/storage facility, as described herein.

At locations where smaller amounts of seed are produced, ICARDA has two options:

Transport the seed to the stationary plant for processing, treating and bagging; or
Use portable cleaner/treater/baggers which can be moved from site to site as needed. This (as well as the stationary plant) may require generators to power the equipment.

XII.4.4.3. Village Seed Enterprises

The most promising innovation for seed supply in Afghanistan is the development of Village Seed Enterprises, with guidance from a well-trained, seed-oriented Extension, to provide seed for village needs.

The primary equipment need for this type of operations is a small cleaner and treater. This may be a combined portable machine provided with a generator (which can be used for the village when not used for seed cleaning), or small hand-powered seed cleaners and treaters, which are available in other countries of the region as well as internationally available.

XII.4.5. SOURCES OF EQUIPMENT AND SERVICES

Equipment, spare parts, technical services, design engineering, and assistance in installation are available from many countries and many companies. Two sources which have, in past experiences, demonstrated special advantages and competence for needs such as Afghanistan are:

Crippen International, Inc.
Mr. Gary Billups, President
13237 Montford, Suite 701
Dallas, TX 75240-5114
Direct office tel. (972) 943-0287, Direct office fax (972) 943-0288
e-mail: billupsg@crippen.org

AGROSAW Agro Industries
Sanjeev Sagar, Managing Partner
PO Bag No. 5, OSAW Complex, Jagadhri Road
Ambala Cantt. 133001 Haryana, India
Tel. (0171) 643-147, 643-167, fax (0171) 641-018, 643-502
e-mail indosaw@nde.vsnl.net.in

XII.4.6. RECOMMENDED FACILITIES

XII.4.6.1. Complete Plant

A stationary seed conditioning facility should be established where the program will handle 500 MT or more. This plant should have a cleaning capacity of 3-5 MT/hour, which will require (for cost-effective operations) a simple continuous-flow system. It should be emphasized that a sophisticated plant should not be installed; a simple but complete plant, with manual adjustment of operations and flow rates, with minimal maintenance and repair requirements, is required.

XII.4.6.2. Receiving and Shipping

The design of the plant facility should include easy access by trucks, from the adjoining road, to bring in raw seed and haul out the cleaned seed. The storages should be constructed with floors at truck-bed height, to facilitate rapid loading and unloading. There should be adequate "loading docks" at doorways so as to facilitate seed movement. There should only be two doors into the storage: in the center of each end; never in the sides, as this wastes storage space.

XII.4.6.3. In-Plant Storage

Adequate safe storage should be attached or adjacent to the processing plant to (1) receive and safely keep incoming raw seed until it can be cleaned; and (2) hold cleaned seed until it can be transported. Raw seed and cleaned seed, if at all possible, should be kept in separate storage facilities, both for insect control and to maintain identity and prevent accidental introduction of treated seed into non-treated raw seed. It is assumed that, since it is not treated, waste products separated in the cleaning process can be used as feed or food.

This will involve only short-term storage, or at best a small amount of carryover seed. The only requirement is a building which protects the seed from direct sunlight, keeps the seed as cool as possible, and protects it from birds and rats. The storage should be in a dry area, away from ditches or drains where there is water or damp soil.

Seed bags should be stacked on pallets or frames; never stack bags directly on the floor or against walls. A budget should be allowed to procure such pallets or frames.

XII.4.6.4. Drying

Under Afghan conditions, drying is not required, normally, for wheat and barley seed.

XII.4.6.5. Seed Handling and Movement

For cost reasons, seed will probably be moved from storage into processing, and from processing into storage, by two-wheeled rubber-tired "bag trucks". A worker can carry 4-6 bags (each of 50 kg) on such bag trucks.

To stack seed in piles in storage, portable height-adjustable bag conveyors should be used. At least two should be procured, to provide a back-up and to permit handling raw seed and cleaned seed at the same time, or stacking cleaned seed into storage at the same time that cleaned seed are transported out of storage.

Ideally, a forklift should be used, with seed bags stacked on pallets. If budgets allow, a diesel-powered forklift of 2-4 MT capacity with a lift height of approximately 4 meters, plus an adequate supply of wood frame pallets, should be procured.

XII.4.6.6. Separations and Processing Operations

Considering Afghanistan's current emphasis on cereals, the plant should be basically designed for wheat seed. Such a plant can also handle barley seed, even though it lacks a debearder to improve the flowability of barley seed.

This should include, in an efficient flow sequence, the following components. Each machine should have adequate capacity to keep up with the flow of seed from other machines:

Receiving incoming seed and introducing it into the system, labeling it, moving it into temporary storage for holding until it is to be processed.
Moving seed from temporary "raw" seed storage into processing. This should, in a facility suitable for Afghanistan, involve emptying seed into the floor-level intake hopper of an elevator which puts seed in the bin over the first cleaner. This elevator should have a minimum capacity of 3 times the cleaner's capacity; this is essential, so that workers are not required to constantly feed seed into the elevator; they can fill the cleaner's bin, then do other work until the cleaner bin again needs filling.
The first, and basic cleaning is done on an air-screen cleaner. This cleaner should have an overhead holding bin (capacity at least one hour capacity of the cleaner) to maintain a uniform feed rate; 2 air blast separations; 4 in-sequence screens to remove larger and smaller undesirable materials. The cleaner should be mounted on an elevated stand which provides ready operator access, but also leaves space so waste materials can be bagged at the cleaner. Cleaned seed should be spouted into the floor-level hopper of the next elevator.
This elevator (receiving cleaned seed from the air-screen cleaner) should have a floor-level intake hopper, so that seed can be fed into this elevator either from (1) a spout from the air-screen cleaner or (2) poured in from bags. This elevator should have a 3-way discharge outlet so that it can feed seed into either (1) the overhead hopper of the next machine; (2) into the overhead hopper of the treater; or (3) into the bagging hopper.
The second cleaner is a length separator, either cylinders or disks. This machine must be configured so that it can remove particles both longer and shorter than the good wheat (or barley) seed. In the case of a cylinder machine this will require 3, or at least 2, consecutive cylinders: a "splitter", a long particle removal, and a short particle removal. It requires an overhead feed bin of at least 1 hour operating capacity, and a support stand/platform that provides operator access while leaving space for bagging waste products at the machine. Clean seed should be spouted directly into the floor-level hopper of the next elevator.
This elevator should have a floor-level intake hopper, so that it can receive seed either (1) from the clean seed spout from the length separator or (2) poured in from bags. This elevator should have a 2-way discharge spout so that it can selectively feed seed into either (1) the treater's overhead hopper or (2) the bagging bin.
The next machine is the treater. A simple, easily-adjusted and -maintained treater should be used, do not use a complex (but useful!) treater such as is common in plants in developed countries. It may be either slurry or dust, but must be easily adjusted and should have a safety dust exhaust fan system. It should have a capacity considerably higher than the cleaners, so that the treater can be operated intermittently as its overhead hopper is filled. The treater should have a supplemental tank to hold a supply of treatment, if it is a slurry treater. The treater should discharge treated seed through a spout, into the floor-level intake hopper of the next elevator.
This final elevator feeds seed into the overhead bagging bin. This bin should have a capacity of 2 or more hours' cleaning. This permits intermittent bagging of seed, and (combined with high-capacity feeding of raw seed to the first cleaner) cuts in half the requirement for laborers. An easily-adjustable semi-automatic bagger-weigher of adequate capacity (for 50-kg bags, a model with approximately 25-100 kg capacity can be used) should be mounted on the discharge outlet of the bagging bin. This bin should be mounted so there is adequate room beneath the bin to permit installation of the bagger-weigher directly on the bin discharge, and to handle bags beneath it during the bag-filling operation.
The final step is closing bags. For this, a bag-sewing (stitching) machine should be used. The lightweight portable bag stitcher is good, but it is not recommended for this installation, because of the need for more intensive maintenance and adjustment. A heavy-duty bag stitcher, with an overhead suspension system, will have a longer operating life with less "down time" under Afghan conditions, and is recommended.
Other equipment needed will include: portable platform scale (metric system, capacity about 25-100 kg), industrial vacuum cleaner for clean-up between varieties, hand tools for maintenance, 3-4 bag holders for filling bags by hand, brooms, shovels, etc.

XII.4.7. POWER

Many rural locations do not have dependable supply of electricity. This also reportedly holds true for urban areas; certainly, the power has been off many times for short periods during this mission.

It will, therefore, be extremely advantageous to the program to include electricity generators of adequate capacity and output to operate the essential parts of any facilities installed. While this is costly, it is probably a necessary expenditure.

Generators of adequate capacity can be recommended (and obtained) by the supplier of the equipment for processing.

XII.4.8. CLEANER COMPONENTS AND SPARE PARTS

When equipment is procured, the following should be included:

1. Air-screen cleaner: screens for wheat, barley, rice, maize, lentil, chickpea, and beans, of perforation sizes to handle Afghan varieties, plus the next smaller and next larger size of each screen perforation. Also, it should include appropriate air ducting and cyclone dust collectors for outside dust handling.
2. Cylinder separator: equipped with cylinder indent sizes which can handle either wheat or barley or rice.
3. Each bin and hopper: a rubber-baffled intake to minimize mechanical damage to seed falling from the spout into the bin.
Each machine: bag holders mounted so as to permit bagging of waste products; a support stand which allows easy operator access for clean-out and adjustment, and provides adequate height for bagging waste materials; clean seed discharge spouting to take seed to the next elevator.
Treater: installation support stand, and an extra tank for holding the treating chemicals, with all required spouting. If a dusty-air control system is included, it should be equipped with sufficient pipes and a cyclone collector for outside dust control.
All machines and elevators: manufacturer's recommended spare parts for 3-5 years operation.
Bag sewer-stitcher: a large quantity of the appropriate thread, plus extra needles and other recommended spare parts. Since wheat and similar cereals are the main seed crops, and stitcher needles often break when the needle hits a seed, about double the recommended quantity of needles should be procured initially.

XII.4.9. IN-AFGHANISTAN SOURCE OF PARTS, EQUIPMENT AND TECHNICAL SERVICE

A seed processing operation will come to a halt when a machine breaks or needs a spare part-unless parts are already on hand, or are easily available locally.

To prevent disrupting operations, some international donor agency (and ICARDA is the ideal agency, in collaboration with USAID; for example, working with Crippen International to establish a local supplier) should work with the appropriate local agency to establish a local dealer/supplier of equipment and spare parts.

This should not be a government agency; preferably, it is a local private-sector agency which has export-import facilities and experience, and some mechanical and engineering capabilities.

The volume of business is not expected to be anything more than small, but the needs are critical. A local agency with adequate other business should be selected, with the understanding that this agency will earn its principal income from other sources, and simple provide an occasional service to the seed industry which it handles at a reasonable profit, case-by-case.

XII.4.10. ESTIMATED NEEDS OF THE ICARDA PROGRAM

The calculation below explains in simplified form the calculation of operating capacity.

Information from project personnel indicates that some 10,000 MT of wheat seed production is planned. Harvest periods are May-July (harvest has begun in some areas at this time, early May), and planting is October-November. Assuming that this information is applicable, procurement of seed should take place May-July. Assuming that processing can begin around June 1 and seed must be ready for distribution by September 1 (to allow for time for allocation and distribution, to avoid the problems with late distribution which was widely reported by NGO's), this leaves a time period of 92 days in which to procure, deliver, process, treat, bag, and test 10,000 MT of seed.

Each time there is a change of varieties, 2 days will be lost in clean-out of the equipment. With good management and considering that there are only two varieties presently, no time should be lost in clean-out. If clean-out is necessary, it possibly could be scheduled over the weekend, so no down-time is allotted for clean-out.

Friday is a holiday; staff and workers cannot be expected to work without some rest time. Thus, in the period of 92 days (about 13 weeks) at least 13 days will be lost, leaving 79 working days.

Electricity outages will reportedly be common, and may cause down-time up to 25% (estimated from discussions). However, if an adequate generator with automatic cut-on controls is provided at each location, at considerable extra expense, this down-time can be largely avoided.

Maintenance and adjustment time are required on a daily basis; this can be done be special workers during the daily/nightly period when the plant is not operating.

Assuming no other major causes of down-time (time when the plant is not operating), but leaving some small allowance for unforeseen times, the plant could be expected to operate 75 full days. To handle 10,000 MT in 75 days requires a daily output of some 134 MT/day. Assuming that operations will be carried out for 12 hours per day (which is a good workday, without having double crews of workers and supervisors; the amount of down-time is normally higher than an inexperienced person would think), this is an hourly capacity of 11-12 MT/hour. Some "excess" of rated capacity is usually allowed, as actual capacity is often 75% or less of rated capacity.

ICARDA has 4 options, each of which may have several different permutations:

Installing 6 or more separate stationary plants, each with "rated" capacity (in practice, actual capacity is usually less) of 3-5 MT/hour. Advantages of this are that each plant can be built in an area where seed production of only 1 or 2 varieties can be managed close to the plant, thus reducing clean-out time and transport costs. Four small plants, rather than three, would be more efficient in that an additional location could be served. Some portable cleaners could also be used to handle special lots, or in areas where transport would be uneconomic.

If seed are produced in several areas, there should be a small processing plant in each area. In the long-run, this is much more cost- and time-efficient, than having 3-4 plants and transporting seed.
Using the (quite good) portable cleaner under development by ICARDA at Aleppo. This cleaner/treater has a reported capacity of 3-4 bags (150-200 kg) per hour, or 0.2 MT/hour. To get a capacity of 12 MT/hour would require 55-60 of these portable cleaners, each with a generator.
Using a combination of stationary plants and portable cleaners; for example, using 6 stationary plants to handle part of the seed, and using 15-20 portable cleaners to handle part of the seed.

XII.4.11. LOCATION OF PLANTS

Before locations are finalized, ICARDA staff should make an in-depth study of the seed production potential around the area where the plant will be situated. A seed plant is a major investment which must be amortized over a long period, and its location should be carefully selected, not chosen on short experience. Site selection depends on a detailed investigation of potential sites, with a detailed summary questionnaire and investigation of support services as well as seed production potential.

XII.4.12. INSTALLATION COSTS

Installation can be either (1) minimum facilities or (2) complete facilities. Complete facility costs include land, land preparation, road and access preparation, fencing, buildings (storage, processing, receiving, concreted work yard/areas, offices, restrooms and showers, staff quarters, vehicle and equipment storage, supplies and spares storage, generator shed with diesel tank, guard posts, etc.), electrical lines, sewage disposal, water (assumed to be from drilling and installing a tube well), vehicles (trucks for seed hauling may be purchased or rented, and pickup trucks), seed handling materials, office supplies (desks, chairs, computers, calculators, file cabinets, etc.), processing/treating equipment, and other costs.

The processing equipment, in the end, is a minor part of the costs. We were unable, with our communications facilities, to obtain cost estimates from suppliers. However, it can be assumed that of the CIF costs, the insurance and freight will be major components. Also, the equipment should be installed by a crew supplied by the equipment supplier; the cost of maintaining such a crew in Afghanistan for the required installation period will be a major cost item.

To obtain a closer estimate of costs, the ICARDA-Kabul staff, in the first available off-season time, should explore the costs of setting up buildings, land, utilities, etc. If desired, the seed industry consultant can obtain CIF costs of equipment. It should be noted that the ICARDA-Kabul staff was extremely busy during the time of this mission, not only in seed procurement but also in regular work and handling several simultaneous missions.

It was not possible to investigate building construction costs, and even if this had been done, the figures probably would not have been valid after extensive reconstruction begins (which hopefully, and from contacts made during this trip, should begin soon). If a rough, "guess by gosh" approximation for budget purposes is needed for budget purposes:

Complete facility (including buildings, etc., listed above): at least US$300,000 per plant should be allowed, in view of all the above costs. Even this figure may not be valid by the time construction begins, as construction costs should increase significantly.
Minimum but adequate facilities: installing the above equipment in an existing or rehabilitated building should be possible, given realistic building condition and freight/insurance/installation for imported equipment, at about $300,000 per plant, especially if 4 plants are ordered at the same time from the same supplier.

XII.4.13. CUSTOMS DUTIES

There was not time during this brief mission to contact customs officials regarding customs duties. However, it is normal for international development assistance to be free of duty. This should be investigated by higher management of ICARDA, at a level which can ensure exemption.

XII.4.14. HUMAN RESOURCES

ICARDA-Kabul staff report that they have the CV's of "more than a hundred" persons who would be available for employment. Most of these are reported to have agricultural training; with short-term training courses and on-the-job training, they could become good staff for seed processing/storage operations. However, it is unlikely that any of these are mechanics, and a seed processing plant requires a good mechanic who can handle all-round work of maintaining and repairing machinery.