Prof Terry Aveling

Academic Staff

Research Interests

Currently only a few of the private seed companies in South Africa conduct seed health tests on seed to be imported or exported. The government Seed Testing Station at Roodeplaat, Pretoria, does not have a seed health section and most screening of seed for quarantine purposes is done by the Department of Agriculture. To date there is not even one International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) validated seed health test for maize even though it is the staple crop of many countries. By combining expertise with collaborators from the ISTA Seed Health Committee and with Prof. Aveling being chairman of this committee, the research team (which includes all the postgraduate students involved in the research) and collaboration with the University of Poznan, Poland and the University of Almeria, Spain, rapid screening techniques are being developed that can be validated by ISTA and be placed in the ISTA rules for international application of these procedures for evaluation of seeds moving in international trade. Research concentrates on seed pathology and vigour of indigenous food crops but also on other tropical and subtropical crops as few researchers in Europe and America are interested in studying these plant species.

Research focuses on:

- Isolation and identification of diseases and seedborne fungi of a range of crops including maize and indigenous food crops.

- Evaluation of seed treatments against the pathogens Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium ultimum and Fusarium solani.

- Fungicide seed treatments and their effect on seed vigour of indigenous food crops, maize and vegetables. Seed vigour tests such as accelerated aging (artificially ageing the seed using high humidity and temperature), imbibition (slow imbibition of seeds in germination paper rolls or rapid imbibition in water), conductivity (measuring conductivity of seeds after slow and fast imbibition) and tetrazolium (discolouration of seed determines amount of living tissue) determine what effect the fungicide treatments have on the seed.

- Evaluation of storage techniques and facilities and their effect on seed quality.

Teaching:

- MBY261 Growth, Activity and Control of Fungi
- PLG754 Crop Diseases
- SANSOR Seed Science Course

Links:

- Seed Science
- A tribute to Veloshinie Govender
- International Seed Testing Association
- Field Trip Photos