Hot Water Treatment as Seed Disinfection Techniques for Organic and Eco-Friendly Environmental Agricultural Crop Cultivation
Min-Jeong Kim, Chang-Ki Shim, Jae-Hyeong Lee, Choeki Wangchuk
Abstract
Seed is an essential input to sustain agricultural productivity. The expansion of agricultural areas to meet global food demand contributes to the emergence of pathogenic microorganisms that contaminate and infect crop seeds. Conventional technologies in controlling seed-borne diseases are, however, not environmentally sustainable. This inspired the authors to explore existing literature on organic disinfection techniques for crop production. Various integrated seed disinfection techniques for major food crops, including rice, wheat, barley, millet, buckwheat, and sorghum, have been presented in this study. Moreover, the authors explored the potentials of hot water treatment as an alternative treatment method in meeting the ideal seed quality for cultivation.