Study on Seed Quality and Performance of Some Mungbean Varieties in Pakistan

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at Institute of Agricultural Sciences, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan during the period of Jan. to Feb. 2012. The seeds of three varieties of mungbean (NIAB-2006, AZRI-2006 and Chakwal M-6) were collected during 2010-11 from National Institute of Agriculture and Biology, Faisalabad (NIAB); Arid Zone Research Institute, Bhakkar (AZARI) and Barani Agriculture Research Institute, Chakwal (BARI) to assess the quality status of seeds. Purity percentage and germination percentage of the seeds of all varieties were higher than the national seed standard. The minimum purity was 99.33%, germination was 88.11% and moisture content of all seed samples was lower than the acceptable seed standard. The minimum moisture content of seed samples was 8.33% and the highest 8.75%. The highest 1000 seed weight differed from 56.58 to 63.33 g among the mungbean varieties. In seed health test, nine species of fungi under six genera were recorded from mungbean seed samples. They were Alternaria brassicicola, A. brassicae, Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. Fumigatus, Ascochyta rabiei, Fusarium sp, Macrophomina phaseolina and Rhizopus sp. Among them Aspergillus spp (A. flavus and A. niger) were the most predominant fungi which was followed by Fusarium sp.

Key words: seed quality, performance, mungbean variety, mycoflora