Production Practices, Postharvest Handling, and Quality of Cowpea Seed Used by Farmers in Makueni and Taita Taveta Counties in Kenya

Table 5

Percentage viability of farm-saved and market-sourced seeds from different agro ecological zones in Makueni and Taita Taveta.

Agroecological zone	Germination (%)	Germination rate	Normal seedlings	Abnormal seedlings	Hard seeds
Farm saved
LM5 (Mwatate)	86.6a	38.1a	16.2a	52.3a	3.1a
LM4 (Wote)	61.2b	25.7b	15.1a	33.7b	1.3b
LM 5 (Makindu)	61.1b	25.6b	15.2a	33.7b	1.3b
Mean	68.0	29.0	15.5	38.8	1.7
LSD ()	20.1	8.2	10.7	13.7	2.7
CV (%)	37.6	36.2	88.0	44.9	196.7
Market sourced
LM5 (Mwatate)	80.5a	35.6a	18.1a	35.5b	1.3b
LM4 (Wote)	73.7b	29.4b	9.8b	50.8a	2.4a
LM 5 (Makindu)	67.1b	26.6b	10.4b	54.0a	1.6b
Mean	76.0	32.3	14.5	43.0	1.6
LSD ()	14.0	6.7	14.8	19.4	2.4
CV (%)	21.0	23.8	116.1	51.5	170.2

Means with different letters are significantly different () with Fisher’s multiple range tests; LSD = least significant difference; CV = coefficient of variance.