EFFICACY OF BIOAGENTS IN STORABILITY OF MAIZE SEEDS (Zea mays L.)
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Date
2023
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Abstract
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in the world, ranking
third next to rice and wheat. Its production plays a significant role in ensuring food security
and is used both for direct consumption as well as for second cycle produce in piggery and
poultry farming. The estimated losses is as high as 59.48% in maize grains after storing
them for 90 days in the traditional storage structures. Inadequate post-harvest pest
management practices leads to huge amount of losses during storage and also limits it’s
storage life to a great extent. The present investigation helped to find out whether the bio
control strategies are effective against stored grain pest and can improve the storage quality
of seed w.r.t their physiological parameters. The pooled analysis of variance revealed
highly significant variation for all quality parameters of maize seeds for treatments and
period of storage up to 270 days while significant results were obtained for infestation
w.r.t. time of storage up to 270 days. ANOVA for the biochemical characters after 270
days of storage showed significant results for the treatments studied. Highest mean
performances were recorded in seeds treated with black pepper powder in plastic air tight
container for germination percentage, viability, seed vigour index and alpha amylase
activity, whereas highest lipid peroxidation value was recorded in seeds treated with
pongamia oil in HDPE bag. Seed infestation was comparatively lower in seeds treated with
neem oil in both the packaging material and lowest moisture content was recorded in seeds
treated with black pepper powder. Therefore, the experimental findings revealed that
storing seeds with black pepper powder in plastic air tight container produce superior
results for quality traits of maize seeds and storing seeds with neem oil in plastic air tight
container gives better protection to stored seeds against infestation and can be prescribed
for large scale trials.