Physiological quality of landrace seeds from rural community settlements in paraíba, Brazil

Seed storage is an important step of production for family farmers. However, storing seeds requires an assessment of physiological qualities to set the best storage method and avoid loss of seed variety. In this work, we evaluated the physiological quality of landrace seeds of bean (Vigna unguiculate) and maize (Zea mays) from a seed bank of rural communities settled at Paraíba, Brazil. The study was carried out in the seedling nursery of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Paraíba (IFPB – Souza). The seeds were collected from three rural settlements: Frei Damião (Cajazeiras – Paraíba), Padre Cleides (Santa Helena – Paraíba), and Três Irmãos (Triunfo – Paraíba). We carried out the germination test, vigor test (first count of germination, length of aerial part, and root length), and assessed the moisture and oil content of seeds. The results showed that seeds from Padre Cleides settlement had 97% of germination of 78. 25% of vigor. All seeds from Três Irmãos settlement germinated but showed only 51% of vigor. The lowest physiologic quality was found for seeds from Frei Damião rural settlement, showing a percentage of germination of 60% and 62% and vigor of 4% and 0% for ‘Branco’ and ‘Roxo’ maize, respectively. ‘Ligeiro’ and ‘Costela de Vaca’ bean varieties from Padre Cleide and Três Irmãos settlements showed high viability for production and marketing. The ‘Azul’ variety of bean from Padre Cleide settlement showed lower values of germination (25%) and vigor (8%) than other varieties, being not suitable for production and marketing. We suggest the renewal of this variety by exchanging seeds with other communities.