Postharvesting Techniques and Maintenance of Seed Quality

Abstract

Healthy seeds and grains are the demanding enterprise of the recent era for the production of high yield in the next season. The seeds must be stored for the maintenance of high-yielding crop. During storage, major losses of seeds are caused by various biological and nonbiological factors. There is a need to examine reasonable factors of these crop losses, which ultimately affect the market value and quality of the seed. The quality of seeds can be maintained by using careful postharvest handling techniques. There is need to establish the well-suited methods to assess the losses during the process and to use the best technique to minimize the loss and to ensure the quality and safety of the crop. The target is to achieve the high-quality seeds of the national and international standards that could meet the demand of the supplier. This chapter emphasizes on the aspects and postharvest techniques that are used to maintain seed quality. " comprehensive review of the better, economical, convenient, and productive methods is provided, focused on the needs of developing countries but also with relevance in more industrialized countries.

Biocontrol Methods in Avoidance and Downsizing of Mycotoxin Contamination of Food Crops

“…Seed quality is affected by the maternal environment, maturity at harvest, collection procedures, and storage conditions [58,59]. One of the safe, cheap, and widely applicable approaches is to coat seeds and seedlings with plant-derived antifungal peptides or metabolites [60,61].…”

Effect of Ozone Treatment on Microbiological Properties of Stored Wheat

“…Wheat is one of the stable foods in the world and belongs to the genus triticum in Gramineae poaceae (grass) family [1]. Harvest is the first step to crop production and to transfer grains from the field to the warehouse [2]. Various physical tests are applied before taking wheat to the silos.…”

“…Grain washing is one of the most effective ways to clean grain from all foreign materials and organisms [5]. Before storing grain it is necessary to dry the wheat sometimes even with the use of simple sunlight, to prevent the growth of microorganisms, the destruction of wheat and extending the stored life of the grain [2]. One of the traditional methods for fumigating stored wheat is the use of chemical pesticides.…”

Enhancement of seed germination of Daucus carota sativus L. by non‐thermal plasma treatment

“…[ 4,5 ] Similarly, producing safe and adequate food has proven to be the largest difficulty for developing nations like Nepal since contaminated seeds during postharvest processes of transport, grading, storage, and packing slow down the germination rate. [ 6 ] Simple solutions to the problem of food shortages in the developing world must be realistic, yet they simply do not correlate to easy. [ 7 ]…”

“…[4,5] Similarly, producing safe and adequate food has proven to be the largest difficulty for developing nations like Nepal since contaminated seeds during postharvest processes of transport, grading, storage, and packing slow down the germination rate. [6] Simple solutions to the problem of food shortages in the developing world must be realistic, yet they simply do not correlate to easy. [7] Among many practices, the use of gaseous plasma to improve the quality of agricultural seeds, early seed sprouting, and development has been catching the interest of several researchers all over the world.…”