The Effect of Seed Size on Seed Recovery and Quality in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Background: Quality seed is major input in increasing the productivity of agricultural crops. Seed after harvesting contains many undesirable materials and unfit for sowing. If the farmer is to be persuaded to pay for high quality seed, the seed he buys must be undeniably be pure and flow without difficulty through planter or drill. To separate different size seed material, many equipments have been developed which exploit the differences between the physical characteristics of seeds.Methods: An experiment was conducted to standardize the sieve size for seed grading in chickpea. The freshly harvested seeds of were graded using different sieve sizes. The screens used in this experiment were 7.0 mm R, 6.50 mm R, 6.0 mm R, 5.50 mm R, 4.75 mm R, 3.75 mm R and Bulk seeds (control). The seeds which retained over the screen were subjected to seed recovery and quality tests. Result: The results of the experiment indicated that the seed recovery ranged from 90.4 per cent to 97.82 per cent among the different size grades. As the screen size decreased from 7.0 to 4.75 mm, the per cent seed recovery was increased but seed quality parameters were decreased and well below the Indian Minimum Seed Certification Standard (IMSCS). The positive association of seed size and seed qualities were recorded. The 5.5 mm sieve recorded 96.4% seed recovery as compared to 6.0 mm sieve (94.4%) and found to be better by considering two per cent higher seed recovery and other higher germination, vigour index although there is recommendation is 4.75 to 6.0 mm range. Hence, the seed producer is benefitted by higher seed recovery and profit and without compromising minimum seed certification standards.