Chapter 6 - Seed priming: state of the art and new perspectives in the era of climate change

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The changing climatic and weather conditions have affected the global food supply, especially cereal crops. Worldwide agricultural production is considerably affected by climate change and pressure induced by the ever-increasing human population and their food demand. The production in agriculture is also affected by the insufficient availability of quality seeds and affordable cost for farmers. Interestingly, genetically engineered stress-tolerant genotypes could play an important role in improving ever-increasing food demand under changing climatic conditions. Generally, plant genetic resources are used for the development of genetically engineered stress-tolerant diverse varieties. New and improved varieties of crops with a wider range of adaptation under changing climatic conditions may be a good move toward combating food scarcity for the increasing population and climate change. Seed industry and seed priming (treatment) have played a vital role in increasing agricultural productivity. The adverse effects of climate change on seed productivity and agriculture industry can be minimized by improved genotype, breeding, genetic diversity, seed priming (treatment), seed certification, seed marketing, etc. There is an urgent need to enhance seed productivity and search for suitable geographic regions for enhancing quality seed production. For the certification of seed, international procedures must be adopted for all the geographical areas of the world. This will also help in ease in the availability of quality seeds to farmers and public participation in plant breeding for the seed industry. Seed biopriming is one of the vital technologies in the management of biotic as well as abiotic stresses and guarantees uniform stand establishment under a stressed environment. Therefore research programs encompassing the identification of quality plant genetic resources, genetic manipulations of novel biocontrol agents (fungal and bacterial strains), and other beneficial applications need to be devised.