1. ROLE OF MODERN SEED PROCESSING IN IMPROVEMENT OF HEALTH AND GERMINATION PERCENTAGE OF VEGETABLE SEEDS.
- Author
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Gupta, Anuja, Modi, Bhawani Shanker, and Pandita, Vinod Kumar
- Subjects
GERMINATION ,PLANT embryology ,PLANT physiology ,THRESHING ,AGRICULTURAL processing ,HARVESTING ,AGRICULTURE ,FUNGI ,TOMATOES ,BOTANY - Abstract
Modern seed processing is an important phase in the production of quality seed. During this procedure the seed obtained after harvesting/threshing is passed through a series of machines comprising of screen-grader, gravity separator, etc. which improve the quality of seed. In this study, the processed seeds of vegetables like tomato (Pusa ruby), onion (Pusa red), carrot (Pusa kesar) and cauliflower (Pusa early synthetic) had lower incidence of fungi and nigher seed germination. The incidence of fungi reduced by 16.8 percent arid the seed, germination increased by 4 - 9.4 percent in the processed seeds of tomato, onion, carrot and cauliflower. The incidence of fungi in the processed seeds of tomato (Pusa ruby), carrot (Pusa kesar), cauliflower (Pusa early synthetic) and onion (Pusa red) was 2, 53, 70 and 37 against 4, 90, 72 and 57, respectively in unprocessed seeds. The effect of mechanical processing was also observed on seed germination. The germination of processed seed of tomato, carrot and onion was 98.7, 79.0 and 98.7 and in unprocessed seeds it was 94.7, 70.0 and 89.3 percent, respectively. Hence to maintain high quality of vegetable seeds during storage period, processing of seeds is an essential step. Present studies were conducted under National Agricultural Technology Project of Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The mechanism of mechanical processing and the path of seed quality improvement in above vegetable seeds are delineated in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009