51 Journal of Cereal Research Volume 13 (Spl - 1): 51-56 Research Article Homepage: http://epubs.icar.org.in/ejournal/index.php/JWR Article history: Received: 30 July, 2021 Revised: 22 Aug., 2021 Accepted: 01 Sept., 2021 Citation: Dayal G, AK Sharma, CN Mishra, UR Kamble, R Kumar and SS Gaurav. 2021. Mechanical seed processing improves the seed quality and reduces Karnal Bunt incidence in seed lots of varied wheat cultivars. Regime for up-scaling global seed trade. Journal of Cereal Research 13 (Spl-1): 51-56. http://doi.org/10.25174/2582- 2675/2021/115260 *Corresponding author: E-mail: gurudayalkumar8175@gmail.com umeshiari@gmail.com © Society for Advancement of Wheat and Barley Research Mechanical seed processing improves the seed quality and reduces Karnal Bunt in seed lots of wheat cultivars Guru Dayal l *, Amit Kumar Sharma 1 *, Chandra Nath Mishra 1 , Umesh Ravindra Kamble 1 , Ravindra Kumar 1 and Shailendra Singh Gaurav Department of Seed Science and Technology, CCS University (Campus) Meerut 1 ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal 132001 (Haryana), India Abstract Quality seed production differs from commercial or grain crop production in several aspects. Special methods, precautions and operations are needed to deploy to produce seed of optimum quality. Seed processing infuences the quality as well as marketability of seed and could be effectively deployed for elimination of diseased and damaged seeds from healthy seeds. Karnal Bunt (KB) of wheat is an internationally regulated disease and adversely affects the yield, seed appearance and trade. Therefore, effective seed testing and processing is vital to check the spread of disease through the seed. In the present study, effcacy of mechanical seed processing with recommended screen sizes were tested in six different wheat varieties and found that DBW-222 and DBW-187 shown highest recovery percentage of 90 and 89%, respectively. HD-2967 and HD- 3086 recorded seed recovery of 87 and 86%, respectively. Lowest recovery was observed in case of durum wheat variety i.e. DDW-47 (85%). Further, eleven seed lots were tested for eight seed quality parameters and it was found that all carry over and fresh seed lot maintained germination above Indian Minimum Seed Certifcation Standards i.e. 85%. Further, processed seed lot showed lower KB infection as compared to un-processed seed lots, being minimum in processed seed lot of DBW-187 (0.15%) produced at Meerut. However, seed lot of DBW-187 and DBW-222 produced at Karnal recorded 0.17% KB incidence, followed by HD-3086 and HD-2967 (0.18%) both produced at Meerut. Further, DDW-47 recorded 0.23% of KB incidence which was higher among all the varieties after processing. Among two methods adopted for KB detection, NaOH method was found to be more sensitive (processed as well as un-processed seed lots) as compared to dry inspection method. Key words: Karnal bunt, NaOH method, seed lot and seed processing 1. Introduction Wheat is a major cereal crop in several parts of the world. It belongs to the Poaceae family, of which there are many thousands of species, with bread wheat (T. aestivum) and durum wheat (T. durum) being the most important commercially (McKevith, 2004). Wheat plays an important role in food supply to the growing world population, and contributes towards 20% of total protein and calories requirement (Shewry and Hey, 2015). Approximately one-sixth of the total arable land in the world is cultivated with wheat covering all the continents of the world. According to FAOSTAT (2019), China is the highest wheat producer, followed by India, Russia