Abstract

The premonsoon sowing of millets, pulses and cotton is a practice adopted in most of the rainfed area where the seeds are sown well ahead of monsoon and remain in the soil until receipt of rain. The seeds remain buried in dry soil for 2-3 weeks and germinate after the receipt of the rains if the season is normal and the farmers are lucky. Otherwise, they have to take up another sowing particularly when rain is delayed beyond a month. The seeds remain in the soil and subjected to heat stress and information on the survival of biofertilizer organisms inoculated on the seeds is much limited. Therefore the present study was undertaken to know whether the inoculants survive or perish on treated seeds in the transient period between sowing and monsoon rains.

Keywords: Seed viability, microbial inoculants, premonsoon sowing