Barley production from seeds treated before sowing

Abstract

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), an important cereal crop in India, is grown mostly under rainfed conditions on about 3 million hectares. Vigorous and rapid development of roots of cereals contribute considerably to drought resistance (Genkel, 1961; May, Milthorpe & Milthorpe, 1962; Abdel Rahman, Batanouny & Ezzat, 1967; Bhan, Singh & Singh, 1973; Chang & De Datta, 1975). Many workers (e.g. Abdou & El-Kobbia, 1976; Basu & Gupta, 1974; May et al. 1962; Bozhenko, 1965; Woodruff, 1969; Salim & Todd, 1968; Hussain, May & Aspinall, 1968; Shkolnik & Bozhenko, 1974) have reported that pre-sowing seed treatments increase plant vigour and grain production. The production of barley under rainfed conditions in winter (November–February) depends greatly on the extent to which it can exploit the stored soil moisture after the harvest of the previous crop grown with monsoon rains in India during June–October. The main objective of the study was to dermine to what extent the increase in seedling vigour caused by pre-sowing treatments of seeds can be exploited for increasing the production of barley which has to depend mainly on the continuously depleting soil moisture, after the cessation of monsoon rains, and to investigate the possible reasons for such variations.