Seed treatment with botanicals: an indigenous technology

Abstract

Seed treatment with botanicals is the best alternative to chemical seed treatment and botanicals are ecologically safer and economically viable provides support to small-and marginal-farmers. The most promising botanicals are derived from Azadarachta indica, Acorus calamus, Chenopodium album, Eucalyptus sp. Mentha arvensis and Asofoetida. These botanicals have the property of controlling number of fungal, bacterial, viral and nematode diseases and storage pests in seed crops.Further, it is felt need to explore and identify the new insecticides of plant origin to protect the seed cops and storage pests and diseases. Besides, there is scope for revalidating the some of the indigenous technical knowledge to preserve the farmers saved seeds for sustainable crop production and productivity.