Recent advances in seed coating technologies: transitioning toward sustainable agriculture

Abstract

The practice of coating seeds has evolved from ancient agriculture traditions to one of the most widely used aids in achieving enhanced crop yields. Wide-scale usage of seed coatings has come with its own share of challenges, including agrochemical overuse, carrier pollution caused due to non-biodegradable coating material and increased cost. Modern seed coating research aims to overcome these challenges through maintaining a careful balance between high crop yields and a minimum environmental footprint. Herein, we discuss recent developments with an emphasis on the overall agricultural and environmental viability focusing on the coating material synthesis, energy and chemical utilization, effect on seed growth and ultimate fate of the material in the environment. This review features sections on microbe inoculated, polysaccharide based, nanofibrous, hydrogel and nanomaterials based seed coatings along with elucidation of biomass derived seed treatment strategies aimed to close the loop for a circular seed coating agroindustry. We provide an overall comparative analysis of the discussed coating materials and identify future research directives.