Seed industry has been shifting its focus towards seed treatment, owing to growing demand for crop protection globally. Various methods of crop protection, including spraying of pesticides on crops, seed treatment and others are being implemented by farmers worldwide. Seed treatment refers to appliance of chemical or biological active ingredients on the seeds, which is done before seed packaging. Seed treatment involves coating of seeds with fungicides, insecticides or a combination of these to disinfect them from storage insects and soil borne pathogenic organisms. The seed treatment method is considered to be more effective than other methods such as direct spraying of pesticides on plants, as the quantity of pesticides required for seed treatment is less. Thus seed treatment results in reduction of amount for active substances that are required per acre of land. Few insecticides also have other benefits such as stress tolerance, heat and drought resistance.
Transparency Market Research (http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/), a leading U.S.-based Market Research firm, analyses the market for seed treatment and predicts a compounded annual growth rate of 9.2%, in terms of revenue for the period from 2012 to 2018.Benefits of seed treatment include higher crop yield, improved quality of crops, reduction in amount of pesticides, pest and disease protection. Seed treatment results in measureable and improved crop yield. Protection of crops from pests and diseases also helps to improve the quality of the crop.
Seed treatment is also crucial for genetically modified seeds as the input cost for them is high. GM seeds are currently available for cotton, corn, canola (rapeseed) and soybean and are produced with different traits for yield improvement, crop protection and more, for which farmers have to pay a premium. These seeds are being used by farmers around the world but are extensively used in the United States and few other developed countries. Seed treatment helps farmers to recover their input cost of conventional and GM seeds by improving their crop yield and crop quality.
Seed treatment also has comparatively less impact on the environment than the other crop protection methods such as direct spraying of pesticides on land or crop plants. Application of pesticides is directly on the seeds instead of land or crop plants which results into less usage of pesticides and reduction in environmental impact.
Hence seed treatment poses to be a promising method for crop protection coupled with advantages such as yield and crop quality improvement with least usage of various pesticides such insecticides, fungicides and others.