Seed Deterioration:An Irresistible Physiological Phenomenon

Seed deterioration is the “deteriorative alterations occurring with time that increase the seed’s exposure to external challenges and decrease the ability of the seed to survive”. It leads to reduction in seed quality with storage duration and as the seed germinability decreases causing loss of vigour and making seeds less viable resulting in the death of seedlings in field. The process of seed deterioration could be associated with progressive decrease in germinability, increased mean time of germination, increase in the number of abnormal seedlings and lower tolerance to adverse storage conditions (Dahuja and Yadav, 2015).