STUDIES ON SEED QUALITY PARAMETERS IN HARVESTED SEED OF COLD PLASMA TREATED RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L) GROWN DURING RABI SEASON

Development of climate resilient varieties is critical as cold stress is a polygenic trait, identifying the germplasm for this trait is highly challenging.Cold plasma treatment to rice seeds act as a "mild stressor" that could induce signalling pathways and strengthen the rice plants to combat cold stress, thus eliciting a response from the plant immune system to protect itself from stress.Both normal seed and sprouted seed of three varieties of rice viz., RNR15048, JGL24423 and Tellahamsa were subjected to 20 kV cold plasma for 15 minutes using dielectric barrier discharge method.The nursery was raised during Rabi 2023-24 when the temperatures dropped below 15 0 C. The harvested produce seed quality parameters viz., seed germination rate (%), radicle emergence (%), seedling dry weight (g), seedling vigour index-II, germination index, seed moisture content (%) and electrical conductivity of seed leachate (S/cm/g) were recorded.The results revealed that, cold plasma treatment showed nonsignificant difference for germination rate for varieties; types of seeds and their interaction effects.In radicle emergence test after 96 hrs RNR 15048 showed 8.4% increase over Tellahamsa, among types of seed sprouted seed had showed 6% increase over untreated control and in interaction effects RNR15048 normal seed treated with plasma revealed 15% increase over Tellahamsa control seed.For seedling dry weight (g) Tellahamsa had showed 58% increase over RNR15048, while types of seeds were on par with each other and interactions effects revealed that Tellahamsa control had recorded 62% increase over RNR15048 normal seed treated with plasma.Tellahamsa recorded 61.6% higher seedling vigour index-II compared to RNR15048 while interaction effects showed Tellahamsa control recorded 61% higher seedling vigour index-II compared to Tellahamsa normal seed treated with plasma.JGL24423 had showed 5.8% increase over RNR15048 for germination index while interaction effects revealed that JGL24423 normal seed treated with plasma recorded 16.80% increase over Tellahamsa control.Low moisture content was recorded in JGL24423 sprouted seed treated with plasma and high in Tellahamsa sprouted seed.Low electrical conductivity of seed leachate was recorded in JGL24423 control seed while high electrical conductivity of seed leachate was recorded in RNR15048 normal seed treated with cold plasma.