Significant contributions have been made by the Division of Seed Science and Technology in the area of seed research and human resource development. The highlights of these achievements are as follows:

RESEARCH

Role of quality seed on productivity

·         Based on three years study in the division, it was established that high quality/ certified seed gave a yield advantage of 10-15% over farmers saved seed.

·         It was also established that farmers should replace the quality/certified seed every 3 years in self-pollinated crops and every two years in cross and often cross-pollinated crops.

Isolation distance for seed production

·         Isolation distance for foundation seed production in Pearl millet can be reduced from 1000m to 500m with border rows of male parent. Besides, the isolation distance requirements for pigeon pea, maize, mustard, wheat and paddy were also determined.

·         Based on field trials conducted by the scientists of this Division at New Delhi, Hisar, Pantnagar and Pusa (Bihar) consecutively for 3 years, it has been proved that chlamydospores of Ustilago segetum var. tritici, causal pathogen of loose smut of wheat, do not travel beyond 75m. So, isolation distance can be reduced from 150m to 100m. However, this again needs national level validation.

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