Identification of an Easy, Reliable and Eco friendly treatment for Viability maintenance in TNAU Blackgram Cv.CO 6 ( Vigna Mungo (L) Hepper)

Abstract

In India, blackgram is the main edible crop ranking fourth among the pulses. The area under blackgram is 2.60 lakh hectares, production of 0.99 lakh tonnes. More than half of the Indian population is vegetarian and legumes play a very important role in human diet as vegetable protein which is an essential supplement to cereal based diet. Self sufficiency in the production of cereals could be achieved through green revolution, but not in pulses. Because of the need for nitrogen and its ecologically safe utilization in the expansion of crop production area, pulses play a vital role in the agriculture. Increase of pulse crop production is need of the hour in developing countries (particularly in Indian countries) to feed the human population. The poor performance of pulses may be attributed to several factors, of which preservation of seed is of great importance. Invariably the seeds have to be stored through the monsoon for the next sowing during which period the rise in the ambient relative humidity coupled with the prevailing high temperature can accelerate the ageing process of the seed, leads to deterioration, resulting in loss of vigour and viability. To overcome this deterioration problem, different easy and eco friendly i nvigouration treatments can be successfully employed to prolong the shelf life of unsold stock and highly useful for long term storage. Blackgram seeds of different vigour status of seeds could be invigourated (enriched) using eco friendly treatments like moist sand conditioning with 5% water holding capacity and 48h of duration, 24h of moisture equilibrium and 1h soaking and drying recorded an improvement in seed quality parameters viz., seed germination percentage, seedling length, dry matter production and maintained vigour and viability of seeds.

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