Effect of Various Seed Priming Methods on Maize Fodder Yield

Forage crops are primarily grown for livestock grazing, and they can be fed to animals, or they can be stored as hay or silage to help achieve production goals. In India, there is a deficit of 11.24% in the availability of green fodder and 23.4% in the availability of dry fodder. Seed priming is a pre-sowing technique that improves germination and seedling emergence by soaking seeds in water or a nutrient solution. In this process, seeds are induced into a state of pre-germinative metabolism by controlled rehydration to increase germination rates and germination vigor. The study on the effect of seed priming on yield and quality of fodder maize was carried out at Main Forage Research Station, Anand Agricultural University, Anand during the rabi season 2020-21. The research comprised ten treatments and four replications, and it was set up in a randomized block design. The results of the experiments revealed that different seed priming treatments failed to create a significant response on plant population per meter row length at 15 DAS, days to 50% flowering, and plant height at 20 DAS. The growth and yield attributes of fodder maize crop viz., periodical plant height at 40 DAS and at harvest, number of leaves per plant, leaf stem ratio, green fodder yield, dry fodder yield, dry matter, crude protein, acid detergent fibre and Neutral detergent fibre at harvest were significantly affected by different seed priming treatments and recorded significantly higher in treatment of Seed priming with ZnSO4 @ 0.5% for 6 hrs and also reported maximum net realization with its BCR.