Maintenance of Storability and Enhancing Productivity of Rice Crop by Seed Invigoration Treatments in Coastal Region of Sundarbans

Maintenance of Storability and Enhancing Productivity of Rice Crop by Seed Invigoration Treatments in Coastal Region of Sundarbans

The loss of vigour and viability of paddy seed is a major problem during the storage period in the coastal region of our country. These can be maintained by various seed treatments. In the present investigation the feasibility of maintaining the vigour and viability of rice seed through seed treatments like dry treatments with crude plant material and chemicals, and wet treatment was tested at ICAR-CSSRI,RRS, Canning Town. It was observed that the loss of vigour and viability of seeds (one month old) of high-medium vigour rice (cv. Annada) could be effectively maintained with treatments viz. crude plant material like neem leaf powder @ 2g kg-1 of seed, chemical like bavistin @ 2 g kg-1 of seed and wet treatment (soaking in double volume of water for 4 hours at room temperature and then drying back to its original moisture content). The crops raised from the treated seeds showed significant improvement on storability, yield and other yield attributes. Dry and wet treated seeds showed significant improvement on germinability as well as field performance and productivity over untreated seeds. Among the treatments, dry treatments with neem leaf powder and bavistin showed better results in improving storability, field performance and productivity over untreated and wet (soaking-drying) treated seed. Therefore, seed invigoration treatment in high- medium vigour rice seed with dry treatments (neem leaf powder, bavistin) has been suggested to the rice growers for improved storability and increased productivity..