Performance of quality and health status of four seed classes of jute collected from different sources of Bangladesh

Hundred and fifty seed samples of white jute (Corchorus capsularis L.) belonging to four seed classes were collected from different sources of Bangladesh. The seed classes were breeder, foundation, certified and farmers’ seeds. Breeder seeds had the best performance in all the seed quality attributes as compared to foundation, certified and farmers’ seeds. The lowest performance was observed in farmers’ seeds. Seven different causal organisms of fungal disease Botryodiplodia theobromae, Colletotrichum corchori, Corynespora cassicola, Curvularia lunata, Fusarium moniliforme, F.semitectum and Macrophomina phaseolina were detected in seeds of all seed classes. All seed quality parameters were comparatively better in breeder seeds than foundation seeds. Certified seeds had better performance than farmers’ seeds. So, certified seeds should be used for fibre production at farm level. Therefore, proper care should be taken in the production and storage of certified seeds. Keyword: Moisture, germination, Vigour, fungi, white jute Copyright: @ 2012 Pervin, N. et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Common Attribution 3.0 License.