Paddy seed mycoflora, which causes glume discoloration in paddy, was considered a minor disease and is gaining importance in almost all paddy growing areas of the world. The present investigation was taken up to investigate on seed mycoflora of paddy in Eastern Vidarbha with respect to impact assessment of associated mycoflora on germination of seed, length of root and shoot length, seedling vigour index and seed weight loss. Seed samples of 7 paddy varieties viz. PKV Kisan, D100, Sindewahi, RPN 7, RPM, MTU 1001 and 1010 were assessed and categorized into 6 grades viz. 0, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 on the basis of Standard Evaluation System for paddy. The results on weight loss due to discolouration revealed that increase in discolouration intensity on seed leads to decrease in 1000 seed weight (g) in all 7 varieties. In all the 7 varieties, per cent weight loss was the highest in grade 9 viz. PKV Kisan (29.96%), Sindewahi (22.50%), D100 (43.61%), RPN 7 (44.32%), RPM (11.64%), 1010 (28.12%) an

Paddy, mycoflora, paper towel method, seedling vigour index.

The assessement of all 7 varieties into 7 different grades indicated that maximum per cent fungal association was found to associated with the increase in discolouration intensity. The results on thousand seeds weight revealed that increase in discolouration intensity leads to reduction in thousand seeds weight in all the 7 varieties. It was observed that with increase in discolouration intensity, the germination per cent, root length and shoot length decreased significantly in all the 7 varieties. Seedling vigour index was found to be significantly higher in healthy seeds when compared to highly discoloured seeds. Thus, the study has shown that mycoflora associated with seed discolouration are major constraints in production of quality seeds of paddy. Therefore, care should be taken regarding production and post production activities for healthy, disease free quality seed and to minimize crop failure.

Singh, L.B., Ingle, R.W., Potdukhe, S.R., Pillai, T.S., Isokar, S.S., Pawar, V.D. and. Qutub, M. (2021). Investigation on Effect of Mycoflora of Paddy Seed on Weight of Seed, Germination of Seed and Vigour Index of Seedling. Biological Forum – An In