Department of Seed Science and Technology

Establishment And Development

The Department of Seed Technology was established in the year 1976. Later on the Department was renamed as Department of Seed Science and Technology in the year 1998. The major mandate of the Department is teaching of Under Graduate and Post Graduate students of Agriculture, imparting training and also to undertake research in areas related to Seed Science and Technology.
Two courses are being offered to B.Sc. (Agri.) viz., SST 311: Principles and Practices of Seed Production, SST 321: Post Harvest Seed Technology and Quality Assurance.
One course is offered to B.Sc. (Marketing and Cooperation) viz., SST 221 : Principles and Practices of Seed Science and Technology, in addition to Rural Work Experience Programme (RWEP). Under Commercial Agriculture – hands-on training course on “Commercial Seed Production” is being offered to B.Sc. (Agri.) students.
Post Graduate programs include M.Sc. (Agri.) and Ph.D. Over 405 students have completed Master’s and 45 Ph.D. as of 2022.
The department is undertaking research on various aspects of Seed Science and Technology especially on Quality Seed Production, Processing, Certification, Testing, Storage, Seed Quality Enhancement, Seed Physiology, Seed Entomology, Seed Pathology, Quality Evaluation, Variety Identification, Cultivars Purity Testing, DUS testing for Plant Variety Protection, Development of Seed Quality Assessment Procedures etc., in cereals, pulses, millets, fibre crops, oil seeds, forage crops, vegetables and flower crops, medicinal plants and tree crops to cater to the needs of seed industry.

The highlights of these research accomplishments are standardization of seed testing protocol for crops, standardization of varietal and hybrid seed production techniques in paddy, sunflower, maize, etc.,
Seed quality enhancement techniques in paddy, sunflower, maize, cucumber, tomato, gourds, melons and other crops, development of electrophoresis protocols for varietal characterization, identification and genetic purity testing in rice, maize, sunflower, sorghum, soybean, horse gram, cowpea, etc.,
Validation of DNA markers linked to seed quality traits, , varietal characterization of rice, sunflower, soybean, horsegram and cowpea genotypes based on crop descriptors, image analysis and development of database, seed storage techniques in various crops, seed deterioration mechanism and amelioration techniques in paddy, maize, sunflower, cucumber, tomato, melons and gourds, hybrid seed production in tomato by hydroponics and aeroponics system, etc.,

Various infrastructures like seed quality assessment lab, walk in germinator, seminar halls, lecture halls, shade net for field experiments have been created to carry out teaching and research in the Department

Faculty