Process of seed research in Iran: from past to now

Background and objectives: It seems that there is no good long-term plan to resolve existing problems of seed production and technology fields in Iran. Most of studies about seed technology are based on researchers opinion, ease of implementation or following published articles in credible journals without considering the real needs of the country. Since there is no enough comprehensive information about the previous works in the field of seed, awareness of the past research trends can help researchers and the seed industry planners to know whether they are in right direction of seed industry or attention to unnecessary topics has prevented them from reaching this important. So the aim of this study is to summarize and organize past conducted studies in the field of seed technology. It is important to determine what areas of seed science have been overlooked to make recommendation.
Materials and methods: This study was conducted in Gorgan university of agricultural sciences and natural resources in 2014. All the published articles by Iranian journals and three seed science and technology congresses were collected from 1987 to 2012. The articles were grouped based on their subjects and topics (seed germination and emergence, germination under stress conditions, seed vigor, seed dormancy, seed improvement, seed production and certification, seed storage, seed-borne diseases and pests, seed biotechnology, seed biochemistry, gene bank, seed bank, seed mechanization and other subjects) for crop plants, orchard plants, weeds, medicinal plants, and etc. The number and percentage of articles in each group were determined for each year from 1987 to 2012.
Results: According to the published articles in seed science and technology conferences, most of the articles were related to seed germination and seed control and certification (for first, second and third congresses were 45, 38 and 54 percent of total articles published, respectively). Mainly, more articles related to agricultural plants, especially cereals and oil industrial groups crops (for first, second and third congresses were 78, 77 and 81 percent of the articles for crops, respectively). Among the articles that published in national journals, the highest growth rate was on the subject of seed quality improving (0.79 number of articles per years). The growth rates of articles publishing for the other topics were varied from 0.06 (mechanization) to 0.43 (germination) number of articles per years. In related to crops, cereal crops had the highest proportion plant and pulse had the lowest. Based on comparison of papers published in Iran and international journals, it was found that in Iran considering to seed dormancy and generally weeds is less than international journals.
Conclusion: Due to the high losses of grains during storage, high amount of weeds damage, machines inability to crop production and storage in Iran, attention to these issues are necessary.