Improving Rice Seed Longevity: Impact of Storage Containers, Conditions and Seed Moisture during Storage

Abstract

A study was conducted to observe the trend in rice seed deterioration when seeds were stored in various packaging materials and kept in ambient conditions alongside refrigerated conditions. Seeds were stored in different containers and conditions like S1: Cloth bag in desiccator, S2: Aluminium foil packet, S3: Brown paper packet, S4: Earthen pot, S5: 700-gauge polythene packet, S6: Cloth bag, S7: Polythene packet in Refrigerator. Germination percentage declined with increasing storage duration due seed senescence. All storage containers and conditions maintained the required germination (80%) up to nine months of storage. However, certain containers and storage conditions only manage to maintain germination slightly more than 80% upto nine months of storage, and there was a chance that lengthening the storage period in those containers would result in a reduction in germination percentage from minimum seed certification standard. Though when germination potential, time to 50% germination, mean germination time, germination index, germination energy, average length of seedling (cm), fresh weight seedling-1(mg), dry weight seedling-1 (mg) and vigour index were taken into account all together, it was found that seeds could be stored for up to nine months and longer (i.e., for long-term storage) in a refrigerator, desiccator, 700-gauge polythene packet and an aluminium foil packet because they maintained their higher quality over the course of storage and seed storage with other containers like brown paper packet and cloth bag, leads to faster deterioration of seed quality as they were water and vapour permeable containers.