eChapters

Introduction

Indian Agriculture has made enormous strides in the past 50 years, raising foodgrains production from 50 million tonnes to over 200 million tonnes.  In the process, the country has progressed from a situation of food shortages and imports to one of surpluses and exports.  Having achieved food sufficiency, the aim now is to achieve food and nutritional security at the household level.

The increase in agricultural production, however, has brought in its wake, uneven development, across regions, crops, and also across different sections of farming community.  In the decade of the ‘nineties’, a marked slackening in the pace of growth has occurred, pointing to the need for infusing a new vitality in the agricultural sector.

S.O.867 (E) – In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Destructive Insects and Pests Act, 1914 (2 of 1914), and in suppression  of Plants, Fruits and Seeds (Regulation of import into India) Order 1984, except as respects things done or omitted to be done before such suppression, the Central Government hereby makes the following order for the purpose of prohibiting and regulating the import into India of agricultural articles mentioned herein, namely: -

Part I - Preliminary

    1.    Short title. – These rules may be called the Seeds Rules, 1968. 
    2.    Definitions. – In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,- 
        (a) “Act” means the Seeds Act, 1966 (54 of 1966); 
        (b) “advertisement” means all representations other than those on the label, disseminated in any manner or by any means relating to seed for the purposes of the Act; 
        (c)  “certification sample” means a sample of seed drawn by a certification agency or by a duly authorised representative of a certification agency established under section 8 or recognized under section 18 of the Act; 
        (d) “certification tag” means a tag or label of certain design to be specified by the certification agency and shall constitute the certificate granted by the certification agency; 

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Seventeenth Year of the Republic of India as follows:

Short Title, Extent and Commencement
    1.    (1) This Act may be called the Seeds Act, 1966.
        (2) It extends to the whole of India. 
        (3) It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by   notification in the Official Gazette, appoint, and different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act, and for different States or for different areas thereof.

Cotton is a major crop of India grown in about 9.0 million hectares.This is the largest cotton area in the world. Thus, India ranks Ist among cotton growing countries in the world in terms of area. However, average cotton yields in India have been 320 kg/ha as compared to world cotton yield average of 580 kg/ha. Thus, cotton production in India represents only about 13% of the total world production whereas India accounts for approximately 20% of the world’s total cotton area. Obviously, yield levels in India are low compared to world average. The low yield levels in India are partly due to heavy losses from insect pests, particularly cotton bollworm complex.

Ministry of Environment & Forests Notification

New Delhi, the 5th December, 1989

Rules for The Manufacture, Use, Import, Export and Storage of Hazardous Micro Organisms Genetically Engineered Organisms or Cells
(To be notified under the EP Act, 1986)
G.S.R. 1037(E) : In exercise of the powers conferred by sections 6, 8 and 25 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (29 of 1986) and with a view to protecting the environment, nature and health, in connection with the application of gene technology and micro-organisms, the Central Government hereby makes the following rules, namely:-

The genetically engineered (GE) seeds developed using recombinant DNA technology often referred to as transgenics or genetically modified organism (GMOs) provide an usually adaptable, scale neutral technology for the farmers. Even small farmers can benefit from such seeds provided the seeds are made available at reasonable cost. While growing such seeds the existing crop management practices are usually sufficient. The transgenics or GMOs are also defined as those organisms with a gene or gene construct of interest that has been introduced by molecular or recombinant DNA techniques. These exclude organisms produced by conventional breeding as well as organism produced by rearrangement of genetic materials by physical methods or by chemical means. Thus, GMO’s carry trangene(s) which when integrated and expressed stably and properly, confer either a new trait to the organism which was hitherto not present (such as insect resistance), or enhance an already existing trait such as nutritional quality (Prasana 2001).

Many developing countries, for example India, China, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt and South Africa, utilise the so-called modern biotechnology, based on genetic engineering and genomics. Agricultural biotechnology is the most widespread biotechnology in developing countries, but only a few of them are able to carry out all of the research and development activities leading to the commercialization of genetically modified seeds. These include basic research in molecular and cell biology and genetics, greenhouse and field trials according to  internationally agreed biosafety standards, risk assessment and management, respect for intellectual property rights relating to the transferred genes and to the creation of new crop varieties, production of genetically modified (GM) seeds by private corporations or working in cooperation with the public agricultural research sector, extension activities aiming at delivering the new seeds to the farmers and biovigilance in the fields of GM crops so as to detect any abnormalities or any hazards caused to the environment and to conventional crops (Sasson and Elliot, 2004).

Squashes and pumpkins are vegetable crops of the genus Cucurbita. They are grown in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of the world. These crops are common elements in home gardening and subsistence agro-ecosystems in most countries and are produced on commercial scale in some countries. The economic botany, genetics and evolutionary history of Cucurbita has been reviewed by Whitaker and Davis (1962) and Whitaker (1974).

Hybrid vigour in plants has long been noted, and the first suggestion that it be exploited in vegetables was by Hayes and Jones in 1916. F1 hybrid eggplants were used on commercial scale in Japan before 1925. Demonstration of the value of hybrids in corn in the early 1920’s gave impetus to a few exploratory studies in other crops. Methods of its application to large scale field production of hybrids in vegetable crops were first proposed in 1932 using the self incompatibility system in cabbage and in 1943 using the cytoplasmic genetic male sterility system in onion. Today hybrid varieties are common in several vegetable crops viz., sweet corn, onion, tomato, summer squash, ordinary cabbage, cucumber, watermelon, muskmelon, asparagus, sweet pepper, chilli pepper, spinach, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, eggplant, Brussels sprout, Chinese radish, red beet, celery, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, okra, etc. India figures prominently in commercial exploitation of heterosis in vegetable crops like cabbage, tomato, okra, watermelon, muskmelon, eggplant, bottle gourd, bitter gourd and cucumber.

The information under this section is primarily based on Yordanov (1983). It is almost unanimously accepted that heterosis manifestation in tomato is in the form of the greater vigour, faster growth and development, greater earliness, and productivity, higher resistance to disease and adaptability unfavourable environmental conditions. The first step towards a large scale extension of hybrid tomato cultivars in the practice and proper organization of hybrid seed production took place in Bulgaria. After the second world war tomato heterosis breeding developed quickly in the Netherlands, England France, USA, Japan and other countries. In India, tomato hybrid cultivar on commercial scale was introduced in 1973 by Indo American Hybrid Seed Company.

Floral Biology and Crossing

Pearl millet spikelets bear 2 types of florets, one being bisexual and the other staminate. A singIe pistil with 2 feathery and 3  anthers is enclosed between the lemma and palea. The unisexual staminate florets are sessile and borne below the bisexual flowers. These have 3 anthers and lack the female organs. Pearl millet is a highly protogynous species and thus  highly cross pollinated.
 
The time of panicle exertion from boot leaf varies in inbreds and hybrids. Bhatnagar and Kumar (1960) observed that spike takes 6 days to emerge from the sheath with the maximum emergence on the fourth or fifth day. The stylar branches protrude first from the florets at the tip of the head and gradually proceed downwards. Most of the stylar branches on the earheads emerge by the third day. There exists a great variation in the time taken for the complete emergence of the styles in the hybrids than in the inbred lines (Tewari et al.,1971). Anthesis in pearl millet is completed in two phases. The first involves the bisexual florets while the second involves staminate florets. It has been generally observed that the anthers in the sessile male florets emerge 2-3 days after the anthers have emerged in the bisexual florets. Thus most heads continue to shed pollen for 4-6 days.The largest number of anthers emerged between 8 PM and 2 AM. Environmental factors like temperature and humidity have significant role in the anther emergence.

Hybrid Rice

People’s Republic of China announced the successful development and use of F1 rice hybrids in the late 1970s. The first hybrid rice combinations were put into commercial production in China in 1976. Since then commercial exploitation of hybrid rice attracted the attention of researchers around the world. It is accepted that about 20% yield advantage of hybrid rice would be usually required to meet the extra cost of seed production and the future rice demands of a growing world population. Realizing the prospects of hybrid rice, IRRI intensified research on this and organized an ‘International Symposium on Hybrid Rice’ on 6-10 October 1986 at the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Centre, Changsha, China where Prof. Yuan Longping and his co-workers had made their names in development of hybrid rice. The proceedings were brought out in form of a book entitled ‘Hybrid Rice’ in 1988 by International Rice Research Institute, Philippines. This book documents the information exchanged, and presents for the first time, in English, much of the Chinese literature on hybrid rice.

Hybrid technology is one of the options to boost crop productivity. Hybrids give more yield than improved varieties under optimum crop production conditions. Further, uniform size, earliness, better adaptability to adverse environments, better transportability due to better keeping quality and resistance to stresses are certain additional advantages of growing hybrids with better monetary return to the growers. Hence in coming years, hybrid technology has to go a long way in our country to meet the future challenges (Kalloo et al., 2000). Thus, it is pertinent to have an overview of the methods of the hybrid seed production technology. Various methods are as follows:

The purpose of seed storage is to preserve planting seed from one season  to the next. Further, the objective of seed storage is to maintain seed quality for the longest duration possible. 

Relative Humidity and Temperature Influence Seed Storability

The two most important factors that influence the storability of seed are relative humidity and temperature. The effects of relative humidity and its subsequent effect on seed moisture and the temperature of the storage environment are highly inter- dependent. Harrington (1963) gave two useful thumb rules for relative humidity and temperature in reference to storage life of the seed. These rules are as follows :

Seed enhancement is the process or technology to further improve seed performances under very specific regimes and with certain planting equipment. Three major seed enhancement technologies are as follows (Copeland and McDonald, 1995). 
        Seed hydration 
        Biological seed treatments 
        Seed coatings

After harvesting and threshing, the seed usually arrives at the cleaning plant with trash, green leaves, weeds, other crop seeds and insects, etc. If the seed contains leaves, etc. and other high moisture materials, it cannot be accurately cleaned and safely stored until most of the foreign material has been removed. The process of removing the unwanted materials from a seed lot is known as seed conditioning. Seed conditioning is an essential component of seed technology to ensure that the farmers get the seed of high quality.

Seed quality is a multiple criterion that encompasses several important attributes. A seed scientist may be concerned with each quality characteristic of an individual seed while the seed trader normally considers the quality components of a seed lot. Any individual seed may possess certain measurable seed quality components which include:

Seed certification is a legal programme to maintain and make available to the public high quality seeds and planting material of genetically distinct crop varieties. Under seed production programme, quality seed is produced by govt. farms research stations, progressive farmers and seed producers using careful quality control, pedigreed plant stock, field inspections during the growing season and seed inspections after the harvest. Certification is an officially recognized method for maintaining varietal identity of the seed. In India certification is carried out by State Seed Certification Agencies.

Certified seed must meet certain seed standards in order to ensure an adequate level of seed purity along with the reasonable level of seed germination so that the farmer gets a good stand of the crop conforming to the varietal description. The components of the seed standard are as follows :
     The minimum percentage of pure seed 
     The maximum permissible limit for inert matter 
     Other crops seeds  
     Weed seeds 
     The maximum permissible limit for objectionable weeds 
     The maximum permissible limits of seeds of other distinguishable varieties (ODV) 
     Maximum permissible limits of seeds infected by seed bone diseases 
These standards are ensured in the seed crop by strictly adhering to field standards and careful harvesting, threshing, seed drying and then brining the same to the seed processing /seed conditioning plants. The Indian minimum seed standards for different crops are given in Tables 24.1-24.3 (Agarwal, 1995).