Agricultural Engineers Training on Seed Breeding in Jordan

Within the extended support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Jordan, Her Excellency the Ambassador Mrs. Barbara Joziasse has accepted Bakker Brothers Jordan’s invitation to present the Certificates to 13 Women who concluded the 8-days training at Bakker Brothers Station on “Hand pollination on Eggplant” in late June.

Bakker Brothers Training Jordan
Participants of the training

Bakker Brothers, Dutch seed breeding company, conducts regular trainings on seed breeding to agricultural engineers to enrich their skills with new technology which requires precision and patience. Bakker Brothers in the past few years, have conducted several trainings on Hand Pollination and Seed Extraction of Eggplants.

Within the extended support of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Jordan, Her Excellency the Ambassador Mrs. Barbara Joziasse has accepted Bakker Brothers Jordan’s invitation to present the Certificates to 13 Women who concluded the 8-days training at Bakker Brothers Station on “Hand pollination on Eggplant” in late June.

An interesting conversation took place between the Ambassador and the engineers including innovative ideas and career-related advice in the agricultural sector.

Seed Breeding Station

In their station they have been able to enrich the skills of 128 Women and Men Agricultural Engineers, with women dominating the trainings due to their known accuracy to work in such delicate concept of handling seeds.

The Dutch family business selected Jordan among other countries in the Levant region for their presence due to the country’s political stability, easiness to access and travel to and within the country, in addition to the suitable climate conditions in the country. They started their business here in November 2013 as the first commercial vegetable hybrid seed breeding station in Jordan.

The direct incentive to develop their project is the occurrence of an aggressive tomato pest called Tuta absoluta (leafminer, or tomato moth) in Jordan and the whole of the Mediterranean region at that time. They started by providing training on tomato seed breeding, tomato agronomy, nursery activities, planting and replanting, hand pollinations, operating agricultural equipment, land preparation and sowing, hygiene at work, general and quality management.

The seed breeding station is operating according the Good Seed and Plant Practices (GSPP) which is an international, transparent business chain system designed for hygiene in seed production and plant raising.