Quality Status of Wheat Seed in Eastern India and the Early Vegetative Growth of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Relation to Size of Seed Kumar P.R.1,*, Singh C.B.2, Gupta Ashish Kumar2, Kumar Kundan3 1ICAR-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Research Centre, Ranchi-834010, Jharkhand 2ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Regional Station, Pusa, Samastipur-848125, Bihar 3ICAR-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna-800014, Bihar *Corresponding author email id: kvksamastipur@yahoo.com
Abstract Wheat crop in the North Eastern Plain Zone (IGP) of India, is the part of one of the largest agricultural production systems viz., rice-wheat rotation, occupying more than 11 million ha. The yield potential of wheat in the North Eastern Plains Zone of India is about 4.5 tons per hectare but generally, farmers realize a yield of only 2.2 tons per hectare. Seed replacement rate of wheat in different eastern states has also been quite low. A study was initiated at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Regional Station, Pusa (Samastipur) in 2014–15 to evaluate germination and seedling growth parameters of wheat grown from seeds of varying size. Experiments were conducted on quality evaluation of different seed grades of bread wheat available to the farmers for sowing to study the status of quality vis-à-vis size grading and what is its effect on germination and early dry matter gain with two objectives of this investigation. First, to assess the physical quality of wheat seed available to farmers in North Eastern Plains Zone (which is also known as lower Gangetic plains) in terms of seed size and seed grading and second, to determine the relationships between seed size on one hand and germination and seedling developmental and biomass traits on the other. This paper presents the results of an enquiry into the status vis-à-vis seed grading, of seed lots of wheat which are available to farmers for sowing with the aim of estimating the extent to which the quality of wheat seed can be improved by merely grading and to establish the relation between seed size and crop establishment. From the results of this study, it can be inferred that 67.97% of area in North eastern plains zone (NEPZ) of India is sown with seed either saved by farmers or obtained locally. Use of sub-standard seed may be counted prime among many factors responsible for low productivity of wheat in lower Gangetic plains. Only seeds from authentic sources were found to be properly graded. It was also observed that wheat seed supplied by registered companies are as good in terms of grading and germination as seeds supplied by government organizations including national and state seed corporations. Graded seeds not only have higher germination ability but also higher seedling vigour in terms of dry matter gain in seedlings during early vegetative growth phase. Top Keywords Wheat, Seed, Vegetative, Relation. Top |