The Effect of different moisture content and packaging materials on paddy seed viability stored under ambient condition

An experiment was conducted to study the effect of different moisture content and packaging materials on paddy seed viability stored under ambient condition. The objective of the research was to determine the effect of different packaging materials on the viability of paddy seed under ambient condition. Two factors were used in the experiment which was different type of packaging materials and different initial seed moisture content. Seeds were packed in polypropylene (PL), polypropylene + polyethylene (PL-LDPE), polypropylene + high density polyethylene (PL-HDPE), polypropylene + metalized PET aluminium foil (PL-MPET) and polypropylene + nylon laminated plastic bags (PL-LN). The seed moisture contents used was 12%, 16% and 20%. There were 45 packages of TR-8 paddy seeds. Every two weeks seed samples were drawn from each package and they were tested for germinability. The parameters examined in this study were germination percentage(%), seedlings height (cm), root length (cm), number of normal and abnormal seedlings(%), moisture content(%), fresh and dry weight of shoot and root (g) and seed vigour index. Data were collected and analysed for different parameters by using Sx3 Factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD) to determine the significant difference between treatments. The results revealed that seeds packed in PL bags ( control) and stored with 12% moisture content recorded consistently higher germination rate (86.333%) under ambient condition. Parameters such as seed vigour index (9.7478), height of seedlings (11.2967cm) and root length (4.28cm) were also higher in comparison to those seeds stored in other packaging bags. Therefore the present study showed that others packaging bag which were PL-LDPE, PL-HDPE,PL-MPET and PL-LN proved to be less effective for maintaining seed viability and vigour under ambient storage condition. Seeds that initially stored with high MC (16% and 20%) and packed with permeable packages (PL-control) were less subjected to the fluctuations of moisture. However, seeds with high MC packed in impermeable packages will caused the seeds to respire and deteriorate faster. Lower moisture content helped to improve the storability of seeds attributable to the lower respiration rate, metabolic activity as well as lower infection of microorganisms. As a conclusion, paddy seeds variety TRS should be kept in porous packages (PL-control) at low moisture content (12%) in order to maintain their viability and vigour under ambient condition