56 GERMINATION.CA JANUARY 2018 WORLD STATUS Australian growers switch to direct combining as opposed to swathing their canola, while Tanzania cracks down on substandard and fake maize seed. AUSTRALIA A SIGNIFICANT NUMBER of canola growers in the central west of New South Wales have changed the way they harvest canola, according to early results from an on-going practice change survey. The survey being conducted by the Grains Orana Alliance (GOA) showed more than 66 per cent of growers are now comfortable with direct heading canola crops, with more than 55 per cent of crops now direct harvested, rather than windrowed. Developed to investigate practice change in canola harvest management and nutrition in the central west, the survey has now been expanded by GOA to include all interested New South Wales growers. GOA is one of several Grains Research Development Corporation (GRDC) investments designed to deliver research and extension at a grassroots level, as well as provide critical information about regional production constraints and priorities. GOA chief executive officer Maurie Street said the current survey was designed to give the GRDC and GOA an under- standing of the on-farm impact of their research and the effectiveness of their information deliv- ery to growers and advisers. ETHIOPIA A JOINT EFFORT of the Ministry of Agriculture & Natural Resources (MoANR) and the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) launched a new organization known as Seed Unit to curb the challenges in improved seed distribution that have led to the decreased use of improved seeds amongst farmers. The Unit, which has four members from the MoNAR and ATA, is responsible for the research to identify prob- lems plaguing the entire seed production and distribution system. The seed system refers to the activities of developing, producing and distributing seeds to smallholder farmers. Along with water and fertiliz- ers, seeds are the fundamental ingredients for better agricul- tural productivity. “The unit was mainly estab- lished to minimize the demand and supply gap of improved seeds coupled with its distri- bution constraints,” said Seifu Assefa, director of agriculture input marketing at the ministry. “There was no formal body to coordinate and organize the seed production and distribution system, and the new unit will put such an institution in place.” The unit was established after the newly developed strategy dubbed Seed System Development Strategy released by the MoANR through ATA’s facilitation. It reviews the entire value chain system of the seeds starting from germination until they reach the farmers’ hands. “We will officially launch the strategy in a month’s time,” said Seifu. INDIA CROP RESIDUE BURNING in northwest India contributes to nearly a quarter of Delhi’s air pollution in the winter months, creating a crisis situation and public health emergency every year in November. A piece of innovative agricultural technol- ogy, the Happy Seeder, has recently been recommended by India’s National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) as a holistic solution to eliminate crop residue burning while increasing farmers’ incomes, improving soil fertility and reducing water use. However, its uptake has been slow and currently less than one per cent of agricultural acreage in Northwest India is using this technology. A new report, ‘The Evergreen Revolution’, is jointly published by several groups including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia endorses NAAS’s recommenda- tion.  The report states: “We believe a full transition away from crop burning in northwest India in the next five years