Development of Climate-Smart Seed Coatings for Improved Germination Maize Under Drought Stress

Abstract

Drought stress has a severe effect on the germination of maize seeds and the seedling establishment, resulting in high yield gaps, but the field-based intervention that can oversee the seed microenvironment is not fully explored. The objective of this study was to establish and test climate-intelligent seed coating formulas to improve the germination and early development of maize in case of field-imposed drought. An experiment was conducted on a field where five treatments could be used, an uncoated control (T0), polymer-only coating (T1), polymer plus hydrogel (T2), polymer plus osmoprotectant (T3) and polymer plus beneficial microbes (T4). Emergence dynamics, seedling physiology and end yield data were captured and assessed through ANOVA and post hoc HSD tests of Tukey. The outcomes revealed that integrated coating was much superior to the control. The T2 treatment (polymer + hydrogel) had the highest final emergence percentage of 78.8 ± 1.3% which was a 34.7 percent greater increase as compared to T0 (58.5 ± 1.7%), and the shortest mean of germination time (5.90 ± 0.12 days). The treatment of T4 (polymer + microbes) had the greatest seedling dry biomass (5.93 + 0.15 g/plant, 54.8 percent increase) and root to shoot ratio (0.58 + 0.02). Finally, the level of grain yield was much higher in T2 (5860 + 84 kg/ha) and T4 (5637 + 78 kg/ha) than in T0 (4247 + 97 kg/ha; p < 0.001). These results validate that multi-component seed treatments, especially those including hydrogels or helpful microorganisms, are a feasible and efficient technology to enhance drought resilience during the decisive germination phase, as a scalable approach to stabilizing maize output in water-restrained conditions.

Keywords: Drought Stress, Maize Germination, Seed Coating, Seedling Vigor, Water Retention.