Evaluation of On-Farm Seed Priming Techniques for Direct-Seeded Rice in Salt-Affected Soils  <b>             </b>

The experiment was planned to investigate the effect of soil conditions (dry and moist) integrated with different seed priming techniques on growth and yield improvement of direct seeded rice in salt affected soils. A moderately salt affected field having pHs = 8.68, ECe =4.30 dS m-1 and SAR = 34.40 (mmol L-1)1/ 2 was selected. The trial was laid out in split plot design with three replicates. NIAB-IRRI-9 was used as test variety. The treatments included in the study were i.e., Soil conditions, 1. Dry, 2. Moist (field capacity) and seed priming techniques (T1= dry seed, T2= Canal water soaking for 24 hrs, T3= Seed soaked in tube well water for 24 hrs, T4 =Seed soaked in CaSO4 solution (2%) for 24 hrs, T5= Seed soaked in K2SO4 solution (2%) for 24 hrs, T6= Sprouted seed and T7= Chitted seed). The results indicated that seed priming with CaSO4 proved to be more effective among all the priming treatments and improved the performance of rice crop in the term of plant height, number of tillers, 1000 grain weight and paddy yield. Furthermore, advantages of seed priming were more manifested in dry soil conditions.