Germplasm conservation strategies – impact of conditioning on the viability of dry pearl millet seedsD V S S RSastryauthorH DUpadhyayaauthorC L LGowdaauthorSeed deterioration is a continuous process and conservation of germplasm in ex-situ facilities necessitates techniques that prolong seed longevity. A combination of 3–7% seed moisture content (mc) and a storage temperature below 0°C is suitable for long-term preservation of orthodox seeds (FAO/IPGRI 1994). When seeds of different crops are dried to low moisture levels, there is a decrease in weight and volume and when large seeds dry too rapidly, the outside of the seed loses moisture more rapidly than the inside of the seed and it reduces in volume more quickly leading to cracking of the seed coat (Ellis et al. 1985). Internal drying stresses also increase susceptibility of seeds to mechanical injuries and the dryness of seeds is also critical to the occurrence of imbibition injury (Ellis et al. 1990). Imbibition injury occurs in standard germination tests of very dry seeds, even when the germination medium is of low osmotic potential. In addition to legume seeds, problems of imbibition injury have been encountered with forage legumes, cotton and sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) (Ellis et al. 1985). Imbibition injury to seeds depends on several factors such as seed maturation, age, mc and storage temperature (Powell and Matthews 1979, Tully et al. 1981, Taylor and Prusinski 1990). Imbibition injury to seeds is a potential problem for genebanks handling germplasm samples of very dry seeds especially in meeting the requirements for long-term storage. A critical mc below which a constant proportion of seeds fail to germinate as a result of imbibition injury and the susceptibility of very dry seeds to imbibition damage has been reported by Ellis (1987) and Ellis et al. (1990).Millets2011International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Article