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The experiment was conducted at Babugonj, Barisal; MS Laboratory of Plant Pathology Department, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh and Seed Pathology Centre, BAU, Mymensingh during 2003-04 to investigate the health, germination and seedling vigor of the farmers produced rice seeds and to compare the health and quality of seeds produced by trained and untrained farmers. The rice seed samples cv. BR 11 were collected from 5 trained and 5 untrained farmers of Babugonj, Barisal to investigate the seed health and quality. Dry inspection, physical sorting, blotter test, germination test and seedling vigor tests were performed. Maximum pure seed (99.01%) was found in seed samples of trained farmers and minimum (96.19%) in untrained farmers. Healthy seed (67.7%) were recorded in seed samples of trained farmers and 48.41% in untrained farmer's samples. Four fungal genera were associated with the six month stored rice seed samples. The genera were Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium. and Curvularia. In case of freshly harvested rice seed, trained farmers samples yielded the lowest count of Fusarium sp.(2.6%), Bipolaris oryzae (2.9%), Curvularia sp (0.9%), Alternaria padwickii (0.3%), Nigrospora oryzae (1.6%). Seeds of trained farmers gave maximum germination (81.5%) and also yielded maximum number of healthy seedlings (76.6%). The seeds of untrained farmers had very low germination (62.2%), highest number of diseased (6.8%), abnormal seedlings (6.75%) and lowest number of normal seedlings (48.6%). Root length, shoot and root weight of trained farmers seedlings were higher than untrained farmers. Trained farmers seeds resulted increased in seedling vigor and produced more healthy seedlings.

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Carelia Juarez

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