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Biology and Biotechnology of Environmental Stress Tolerance in Plants, Volume 3

5.4 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF MAGNETO-PRIMING

As like every technology, seed pre-magnetization also delivers both advan-

tages and disadvantages. The advantages of magneto-priming would be

summarized as:

•

This is a simple, cost-effective, and harmless scientific technique of

seed invigoration.

• The magnetic field can be of various types like a geomagnetic field,

static magnetic field, the EMF of AC (alternating current) and DC

(direct current), magnetically treated water, etc., and the strengths

of the magnetic field can easily be regulated. Due to such versatility

in experimental designs, the magnetic field can induce different

responses in the plant system.

• The use of magneto-priming is not only restricted to laboratory

experiments rather can also be extended to field applications

since pre-sowing exposure of seeds to the magnetic field has been

described to have positive influences on plant growth parameters

like plant height, leaf area expansion, leaf chlorophyll content,

photosynthesis rate and plant biomass production.

• Pre-sowing magnetization of seeds is able to mitigate several stress

conditions like salinity, drought, UV-B exposure, heavy metals like

cadmium as well as biotic stresses. Thus, magneto-priming is one

the most effective priming technologies to increase a plant’s survival

and productivity under environmental stress conditions too.

• The use of physical priming techniques like magneto-priming can

be an effective and eco-friendly approach in reducing the use of

hazardous chemicals in agriculture to control pests and diseases.

Despite having the above advantages, magneto-priming has some disad-

vantages too:

• The main disadvantage of magneto-priming is the lack of proper

information about the interactions of MF at the molecular and

genetic levels.

• Besides, there is a lack of protocol for the experimental designs and

standardized crop-specific intensities of the magnetic field. Further,

the use of high strength EMFs can be hazardous to human health and

thus it requires proper expertise on how to construct and sustain the

experimental design.