QUALIDADE DE SEMENTES DE MILHO DE DIFERENTES CAMPOS DE PRODUÇÃO DE CINCO ETAPAS DO BENEFICIAMENTO

Abstract

Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the world’s main agricultural crops, used for food, animal feed, and industry. Its cultivation has great economic importance and contributes to global food security. This study aims to evaluate the quality of maize seeds throughout the processing stages. The seeds used were collected at the Seed Processing Unit of Agroplanta Sementes LTDA, in Hidrolândia – GO. The sample cultivar used was AGR-Vereda from the 2023/2024 harvest, originating from three different locations: Bela Vista de Goiás, Hidrolândia, Goiás, and Barreiras, BA. Seed samples were collected at different stages of processing, including reception (hopper), cleaning (1st gravity table), length classification (trieur), density classification (2nd gravity table), and treated seeds. Physical and physiological quality tests of the seed samples were conducted in the Phytotechnics laboratory and the sand germinator of the Instituto Federal Goiano – Campus Hidrolândia, GO, as well as in the seed analysis laboratory Conceito Agronômico LTDA (Goiânia, Goiás). The results revealed that seeds from Bela Vista and Hidrolândia, Goiás, showed higher germination and emergence percentages after passing through the trieur and the 2nd gravity table stages. Meanwhile, seeds from Barreiras, BA, obtained at the 2nd gravity table and after treatment, performed better in terms of physiological quality. It was concluded that, except for the seeds from the 1st gravity table in the 7-day count, all seed lots presented percentages above the commercial standard for the species (85%).