Determination of Standards for Purity and Germination for African Indigenous Vegetable (AIV), Blackjack (Bidens pilosa )

This study intended to improve access of high quality African Indigenous Vegetables (AIVs) seeds to farmers, contributing to their improved livelihoods, through developing registration standards for use in commercial seed production. Availability of high quality AIVs seeds in Zimbabwe can increase the production levels of these vegetables and change the livelihoods of many people in Zimbabwe. The formalization and commercialization of AIVs seeds will ensure sustainable availability and marketing of good quality seeds as well as meeting local seed security. This study reported the Purity and germination analysis conducted on Bidens pilosa . A comparative analysis of 3 laboratories results were used for developing and validating standards in Zimbabwe, with potential applicability at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. There was no significant evidence of sample or laboratory effects on purity and germination tests at the level of significance, α, equal to 0.05. Grouping information using Tukey Method for comparison indicated that all laboratory results were not significantly different from each other. Similarly, there was no significant difference between all the samples. This suggested that all the laboratories provided uniform results validating the minimum purity and germination standards to be 99% and 88% respectively. Peer-review studies are recommended, in addition to further studies on different AIVs seeds to promote their potential for commercial exploitation and human livelihood contribution.