Hermetic Cocoon for Large-scale Paddy Seed Storage in Bangladesh

Quality seed gives higher germination and production and contributes to food security. Safe seed storage refers maintaining quality of seeds during storage. Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) meets up the major share of paddy seed demand in Bangladesh. In the study, paddy seed storage in hermetic cocoon and traditional gunny bag was studied thoroughly for large scale paddy seed storage in BADC. The hermetic cocoon is a large pouch that can enclose bagged paddy seed in an airtight environment. Three hermetic cocoons (30-ton capacity each) were set up alongside of traditional bulk seed storage in gunny bags at BADC, Madhupur, Tangail for comparison. Seed samples were collected during the experiment. Moisture content of paddy seed stored in hermetic cocoon was much more stable than traditional gunny bag storage. Though insect infestation was absent in both gunny bag and hermetic cocoon storage intermediate activities i.e. several rounds of fumigation and insecticides application were required for keeping paddy seeds free from insect attack in case of traditional gunny bag storage. However, hermetic cocoon kept the paddy seed insect free without such kind of chemical application. Germination rate of stored paddy seed was found higher (92.94%) than that in traditional storage (91.47%). Thus, hermetic cocoon has the potentiality to replace intermediate activities of traditional storage at BADC maintaining paddy seed quality. Therefore, hermetic cocoon could be an appropriate technology for large-scale paddy seed storage in BADC of Bangladesh.