Seed bio-priming for biotic and abiotic stress management

Abstract

In modern agriculture, advance technologies are being deployed for breaking yield barriers and enhancing crop productivity. Devising varied seed enhancement technologies is an important domain assuring uniform field emergence, better crop stand and realisation of higher yield in different crops. Integration of diverse plant extracts, microbial products and biotic agents through bio-priming for managing seed crop targeting against biotic and abiotic stresses has been considered as a unique approach, as it requires lesser amounts of chemicals, enhances efficacy of the seeds, reduces the cost of management and eliminates pollution hazards while causing minimum interference with biological equilibrium. Seed bio-priming is one of the vital seed enhancement tool in management of biotic as well as abiotic stresses and guarantees uniform stand establishment under stress conditions. Therefore, research programmes encompassing identification and genetic manipulations of novel biocontrol agents (fungal and bacterial strains) along with its commercial application needs to be devised.