S Vennila¹, HB Roghan²*, V Karthick³, V Vijayageetha⁴, T Balaji⁵ and A Krishnaveni⁶

¹Assistant Professor (Forestry), Department of Agronomy, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tiruvannamalai – 606 753, India
²Ph.D., Research Scholar, Department of Agroforestry, Forest College and Research Institute, Mettupalayam – 641 301, India
³Assistant Professor (Agricultural Economics), Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tiruvannamalai – 606 753, India
⁴Associate Professor (Seed Science and Technology), Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tiruvannamalai – 606 753, India
⁵Assistant Professor (SS&AC), ICAR-TNAU-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ramanathapuram – 623 536, India
⁶Associate Professor (ENS), Horticultural College and Research Institute, Paiyur- 635 115, India

*Corresponding Author: HB Roghan, Ph.D., Research Scholar, Department of Agroforestry, Forest College and Research Institute, Mettupalayam – 641 301, India.

Received: September 09, 2026; Published: September 29, 2026

Abstract

Commercial cultivation of Indigofera tinctoria L. is hindered by seed coat physical dormancy. To resolve this propagation bottleneck, a study at AC&RI, Vazhavachanur, evaluated 12 pre-sowing treatments in a completely randomized design, identifying mechanical scarification with sandpaper as the most effective method for breaking physical dormancy. Mechanical scarification for 10 minutes yielded the highest germination percentage (24.0%) and seedling vigour index (276.0), whereas a 5-minute treatment produced the maximum total seedling length (13.0 cm). Complementing agronomic findings, a value chain analysis across five key stakeholder groups revealed that processing 800 kg of dry leaf biomass yields approximately 25 kg of natural indigo cake via biological fermentation and extraction. This value-addition chain generates a net profit of ₹28,000 per acre for farmers (Benefit-Cost Ratio of 2.04) and ₹20,000 per processing batch for processors, establishing a sustainable, economically viable roadmap for commercial natural indigo dye production.

Keywords: True Indigo; Physical Seed Coat Dormancy; Mechanical Scarification; Indigotin Extraction; Agronomic Economics; Dye Processing Profitability

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Citation

Citation: HB Roghan.,et al. “Effect of Pre-Sowing Treatments on Seed Germination and Seedling Vigour of Indigofera tinctoria L. and Value Chain Analy- sis". Acta Scientific Agriculture 10.7 (2026): 29-37.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2026 HB Roghan.,et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.