PAID ACCESS | Published on : 05-Jan-2026 | Pages: 73-91 | Doi : 10.37446/edibook032025/73-91
Agriculture starts with seed. The backbone of crop production function greatly depends on quality of seeds. The demand of better-quality seeds for food crops, flowers, horticultural crops, fibre, forage, feed and fuel are increasing day by day across the global. Apart from genetic purity, good, uniform and timely germination under favourable field conditions are the essential characteristics of quality seed. In course of time from harvesting to storing, seed may harbor many seed borne pathogens which deteriorate the quality of seed as well as crop yield. Seed treatment enhances and safeguard such vulnerabilities and ensures good seedling establishment by controlling seed and soil-borne diseases or pests. It also protects initial stages of crop growth from pathogen attacks, ensures healthy crops and good harvest. Treating seed is not only a science but also an art and part of crop production. On the basis of resources, various methods and substance or materials can be used to serve these purposes. Considering the lesser impact on environment, dependency on bio-agents and nano-particles are getting importance in present day agriculture. The ultimate goal of seed treatment is to sustain crop production to feed the hungry nation. This chapter has illustrated the importance of seed treatment, various methodologies, modern scientific intervention in seed treatments including application of nano-technology, seed priming and concise delineation regarding seed treating and processing machineries for boosting up crop production on sustainable basis.
Seed treatment, seed enhancement, seed priming
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