Abstract:
Quality and health status of farmer saved wheat seed of cv Kanchan
grown in 2004-05 was determined by seed health and quality analysis.
One hundred seed samples collected from 100 farmers representing ten
upazilas under nine major wheat growing districts of Bangladesh were
included for the study. Seed health and quality analysis revealed that
moisture content of farmer saved seed ranged between 12.04-]3.30%. Six
types seed contaminants recorded in farmers' seed were - weed seeds,
insects, varietal mixture, seed with husk, other crop seed and inert matter.
Farmer saved seed also contained five types of abnormal seeds viz black
pointed seed, discoloured seed, undersized seed, shriveled seed and insect
damaged seed. On an average, 58.48% 'clean' or 'best' seed was
recovered from farmer saved wheat seed by removing the seed
contaminants and abnormal seeds through manual seed cleaning. Clean
seed had the highest weight, while the undersized and black point Grade
5 seeds were lighter than all other categories of wheat seed. Occurrence
of seed contaminants, abnormal seeds and the sorted out clean seed from
the farmer saved seed varied depending on the seed sources. Of the 13
fungi encountered in farmers' seeds, five target pathogenic fungi
identified, in order of prevalence, were - Bipolaris sorokiniana,
Alternaria tenuis, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium oxysporum and
Aspergillus flavus. Incidence of these target fungi in both unclean and
clean seeds varied significantly with respect to location of seed
collection. All the five target fungal pathogens were more prevalent in
farmers saved seed compared to clean seed. 'Clean' or 'best' seed
significantly gave higher counts of normal seedlings and lesser
percentage of abnormal seedlings and dead seeds over unclean farmers'
seed and abnormal seeds like black pointed, undersized, discoloured and
shriveled seeds. Similarly clean seed resulted higher germination and
seedling vigour index over unclean and abnormal seeds.
Description:
A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture,
Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka
in Partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE (MS)
IN
PLANT PATHOLOGY
