The overarching purpose of quality assurance is customer satisfaction and loyalty. This applies mainly to nurseries which are run as businesses. Where the customers are internal, customer dissatisfaction leads to incessant complaints and a poor tree crop down the line. The factors that influence customer satisfaction include, but are not limited to, quality of seedlings and other planting materials, price, type of service, consumer emotion, personal factors, situational factors, and a perception of equity or fairness.
Instruction 61: Nursery beds should be neatly laid out and free of weeds. Beds should be tagged or mapped to identify seed source, date of sowing, date of germination. Seedlings should appear healthy and be uniformly spaced within beds.
Instruction 62: Seedling quality (including seed source) is crucial for any successful tree planting programme. High quality seedlings have a higher survival rate and faster growth in the field than poor quality seedlings. A seedling of good quality should:
(i) Be raised from quality seed, which is a reflection of the genetic quality of the seed. The characteristics of the parent trees can greatly influence the characteristics of the seedlings. The seed can determine whether the tree will grow well or poorly. Therefore, it is important to know the source of the seed used to raise seedlings.
(ii) Be healthy, sturdy, vigorously growing, and normally green and free of diseases, insect, mechanical damage or stress.
(iii) Have a root to shoot ratio of 1:2.
(iv) Have a large root collar diameter of not less than 4 mm.
(v) Best height is from 15cm to 25cm tall measured from root collar.
(vi) Not have stayed in the nursery from the previous season because it will be an overgrown seedling whose root to shoot ratio is out of balance.
Instruction 63: The nursery operator shall document and continuously monitor the factors that affect the satisfaction and loyalty of his/ her customers.
Instruction 64: The level of satisfaction and loyalty of internal or external clients shall be measured as part of the evaluation process at the end of the field tree planting season. The following broad questions may guide the design of the survey questionnaire:
(i) If you have visited our website, how helpful was it with respect to your needs?
(ii) How helpful were our seed and seedling handling guidelines?
(iii) How would you rate the interaction you had with our nursery staff, on a scale of 1-10? 1 = very bad and 10 = excellent
(iv) Can you rate how likely you are to recommend our nursery to a tree grower or seedlings supplier, on a scale of 1-10? 1= never. 10=extremely likely
(v) How easy was it to solve any issues you had with us, on a scale of 1-10? (1 = extremely difficult and 10 = extremely easy)
(vi) Overall, do you feel you had a positive or negative experience with our nursery? Why?
(vii) How can we improve the nursery products? Please provide all the feedback you can
Instruction 65: Regulation 113 of the Forestry Regulations provides for certification and control of tree seeds and other germplasm. Accordingly, MWE has developed guidelines for the certification process. Accordingly, the Ministry may issue a certificate of good practice to nursery owners based on the minimum requirements of performance described in the Guidelines for Nursery Certification (FSSD, 2018)[1].
FSSD, 2018. Guidelines for conducting nursery certification. Ministry of Water and Environment, Kampala, Uganda. ↩︎