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.