A comprehensive review on modern pre-treatments and emerging technologies for seed germination

Seed germination is a crucial stage in crop cultivation. However, existing review largely provides conventional and emerging seed improvement technologies in separation, arising in fragmented knowledge and limited translational impact. This absence of integration constrains the development of scalable solutions to address climate change–driven stresses and worldwide food security difficulties. To address this gap, the present review offers an integrated framework that critically synthesizes standard seed priming with next-generation augmentation technologies, incorporating nano priming, non-thermal physical technologies, biotechnology assisted approaches, and data driven procedures. New emerging physical techniques, such as ultrasound, pulsed electric fields, plasma-activated water, X-rays, microwaves, infrared radiation, and high-pressure treatments, are attracting interest because of their effectiveness in promoting germination. Moreover, the use of nanoparticles such as zinc oxide and calcium oxide has yielded promising outcomes, especially under abiotic stress conditions such as salinity and drought. Overall, integrating conventional priming with next generation technologies provides a sustainable and scalable approach for improving seed germination, thereby enhancing global food security and agricultural resilience. So, present review highlights on both conventional and new technologies to provide a sustainable approach to improve seed germination. The exhaustive and inclusive framework written in this paper provides a concise statement about the combination of traditional priming with the new generation technologies that can be substantially boost the germination performance, agricultural resilience, and the worldwide food security. Future work should focus on mechanistic understanding, field-level validation, and the development of cost-effective, farmer-friendly technologies to accelerate adoption in real-world agricultural systems.