Muhammad Anas1, Nabila Bano2, Abdur Rauf1*, Muhammad Qayash3, Muhammad Asmatullah2, Faiza Bano2, Abdul Ghaffar Khan2, Farooq Jan1, Ikramullah Khan1, Muhammad Faiq1, Muhammad Sadiq1, Iqra Sana1, Mamoona Bibi1, Guleena Khan1, Shanaz Afzal1, Aimal Zeb1, Kashmala Jabbar4, Wisal Khan4 and Yumeng Liu5
1Garden Campus, Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan 2Pakistan Tobacco Board, Mardan (Ministry of National Food Security and Research) 3Garden Campus Department of Zoology, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan 4Garden Campus Department of Chemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan 5Huazhong Agricultural University, China
*Corresponding author: rauf77@awkum.edu.pk
Tobacco is one of the main cash crops in Pakistan and especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan (KPK). The current research is planned to enhance the germination rate and overcome the germination period in tobacco. A field trial was done to analyze the performance of primed tobacco seeds versus unprimed seeds for better germination, yield and quality of tobacco. Tobacco seeds were treated (osmopriming) with Potassium Nitrate (KNO3), Calcium Chloride (CaCl2), water (H2O) and untreated (control). The result shown that the primed seeds revealed significant promotion in physiological parameters (plant height, leaf area, number of green leaves, green weight, number of curved leaves, yield Kg/Ha) as compared to unprimed seeds. Reducing sugar and nicotine contents also shown significant promotion in prime seeds compared to unprimed seeds.