Abstract
On-farm seed priming with water is a low-cost, low-risk technology that is easily adopted by resource-poor farmers. It increases the yield of tropical and subtropical annual crops in marginal areas by a combination of better crop establishment and improved individual plant performance. The effects of seed priming, i.e. soaking seeds overnight in water before sowing, on plant growth and development are consequences of faster germination, emergence, and more vigorous early growth. Results from in-vitro, on-station and on-farm experiments are discussed. Recent work has tested opportunities for resource-poor farmers to use seed priming as a vehicle for applying biofertilisers (Rhizobia). Preliminary results from field experiments suggest that these interventions are very effective over and above the already demonstrated benefits of priming with water alone. In a pot experiment using chickpea, combining a Rhizobium inoculation with seed priming significantly increased nodulation but had little effect on yield. Nevertheless, the results confirmed that Rhizobium inoculation is compatible with on-farm seed priming. Observations in the field have shown that some primed crops show enhanced resistance to disease, either as a consequence of increased vigour, altered phenology, or due to some more fundamental mechanism associated with exposure of seeds to anaerobic conditions during priming. Priming seeds of a highly susceptible cultivar of pearl millet in water for 8 h before sowing significantly reduced the incidence of downy mildew in artificially infected seedlings from 80% to less than 60%.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
In a chickpea pot experiment, combining Rhizobium inoculation with seed priming significantly increased nodulation.
- Taxon
- chickpea
Cicer arietinume1 - Treatment
- combining a Rhizobium inoculation with seed priminge1
- Outcome
- nodulatione1
- Direction
- increasede1
- Setting
- pot experimente1
RhizobiumNot reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“In a pot experiment using chickpea, combining a Rhizobium inoculation with seed priming significantly increased nodulation but had little effect on yield”
Claim · model-written summary
In a chickpea pot experiment, combining Rhizobium inoculation with seed priming had little effect on yield.
- Taxon
- chickpeaCicer arietinume1
- Treatment
- combining a Rhizobium inoculation with seed priminge1
- Outcome
- yielde1
- Direction
- no_changeinferrede1
- Setting
- pot experimente1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e1“In a pot experiment using chickpea, combining a Rhizobium inoculation with seed priming significantly increased nodulation but had little effect on yield”
Claim · model-written summary
Priming pearl millet seeds of a highly susceptible cultivar in water for 8 h before sowing significantly reduced downy mildew incidence in artificially infected seedlings, from 80% to below 60%.
- Taxon
- pearl millet
Cenchrus americanuse2 - Material
- highly susceptible cultivare2
- Treatment
- in water for 8 h before sowinge2
- Interactor
- downy mildewPeronosporaceaee2pathogen
- Outcome
- incidence of downy mildewe2
- Direction
- reducede2
- Value
- 80% to less than 60%e2
- Qualifier
- artificially infected seedlingse2
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e2“Priming seeds of a highly susceptible cultivar of pearl millet in water for 8 h before sowing significantly reduced the incidence of downy mildew in artificially infected seedlings from 80% to less than 60%”
Claim · model-written summary
Observations in the field show that some primed crops have enhanced resistance to disease.
Verbatim
e3“Observations in the field have shown that some primed crops show enhanced resistance to disease”
Claim · model-written summary
Preliminary field results suggest that seed priming used to apply Rhizobia is very effective beyond priming with water alone.
Verbatim
e4“Preliminary results from field experiments suggest that these interventions are very effective over and above the already demonstrated benefits of priming with water alone”
e5“Recent work has tested opportunities for resource-poor farmers to use seed priming as a vehicle for applying biofertilisers (Rhizobia)”
e6“It increases the yield of tropical and subtropical annual crops in marginal areas”
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