Seed priming techniques to enhance germination and crop yield

Seed germination is an important phase in crop establishment that directly affects the growth of the plant and agricultural productivity. However, adverse environmental circumstances such as drought, salinity, and temperature extremes often restrict germination efficiency and uniformity. Seed priming has appeared as an effective pre-sowing approach to augment germination performance, seed vigour, and stress tolerance. This review offers a complete overview of various seed priming techniques, including hydropriming, osmopriming, halopriming, hormonal priming, biopriming, and nanopriming, highlighting their roles in improving seed physiological and biochemical processes. The original mechanisms of seed priming are discussed in terms of metabolic activation, enzyme induction, DNA repair, hormonal balance, and antioxidant defense systems. Recent developments in molecular biology and gene expression studies related to priming-induced stress tolerance are explored.

Despite its benefits, certain limits, including storage constraints and a lack of standardization, are also addressed. Finally, developing trends such as nanotechnology and microbial priming are highlighted as promising avenues for future research. The morphophysiological data was recorded on the height of the plant, number of tillers per plant, panicle height and panicle number, thousand -kernel weight, grain length and width, yield, and disease incidence.