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Department of Seed Science and Technology, S.V. Agricultural College, ANGRAU, Tirupati-517 502.
The critical stages during early crop growth are uniform seed germination, early seedling growth, and uniform plant stand. Low crop yield is attributed to uneven seed germination and seedling growth. Therefore, the quality of seed can be improved through priming in addition to the field management techniques for better seed germination. Priming is a physiological technique of controlled seed hydration and drying to enhance the pre-germinative metabolic process for rapid germination, seedling growth and yield under normal as well as stressed conditions. The primed seeds show faster and uniform seed germination due to different enzyme activation, metabolic activities, biochemical process of cell repair, protein synthesis and improvement of the antioxidant defence system as compared to unprimed seeds. There are many techniques of seed priming which are broadly divided into conventional methods and advanced methods. However, priming is strongly affected by various factors such as temperature, aeration, light, priming duration and seed characteristics. The present article highlights the priming mechanism and the available technologies as a tool for superficial seed germination and crop stand..
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