Studies on Management of Collar Rot (Sclerotium Rolfsii) of Chickpea (Cicer Arietinum)

Abstract

Chickpea is a major pulse crop in India. It is widely grown an accounts for nearly 75 per cent of the total pulse production in the world. India is the major chickpea growing country of the world. It is affected by several disease and pests. Among them, Collar rot (Scelotium rofsii) is a fast spreading and destructive disease of chickpea. In present investigations, surveys were conducted to know about prevalence and disease incidence of color rot chickpea in Western Uttar Pradesh in year 2019-20 and 2020-21. The prevalence was ranging from 35.29 % to 73.33% in 2019 and 36.36% to 69.56 % in 2020. While, maximum per cent disease incidence was observed in Agra 23.67% followed by Aligarh, 23.41% and minimum (9.09%) incidence were recorded in Bulandshahr in year 2020-21. Nine fungicides were evaluated against pathogen and found that all nine fungicides inhibited wide range of radial mycelial growth of S. rolfsii which decreased with increase in concentrations of the test fungicides from 50 to 100 ppm. Five different Bio-agents were tested against the pathogen and found that maximum 83.21% inhibition of the mycelial growth of pathogen with Chaetomium globosum followed by 76.0% T. harzianum. On different date sown crops after 30 DAS, lowest 14.12 % disease incidence was recorded in 25th November sown crop during 2019-20 whereas 15.15 % during crop season 2020-21. Consortium of bio-agents was evaluated for the management of collar rot disease of chickpea and found that the lowest percent disease incidence and maximum yield were recorded in seed bio-priming with Trichoderma harzianum + Pseudomonas fluorescens in the both the year. Integrated management of collar rot disease of chickpea by combining fungicides, biocontrol agents and organic matters evaluated in field condition in both the year 2019-20 and 2020-21. Minimum 7.06 percent disease incidence was recorded in seed biopriming with T. harzianum followed by 9.09% in soil application of Tebuconazole 50% + Trifloxystrobin 25% WG @0.1%. The maximum yield/ha was recorded 19.50 q ha-1 with 68.39% increase of yield over control in seed bio-priming with T. harzianum followed by 19.00 q ha-1 with 64.07% increase of yield over control in soil application of Tebuconazole 50% + Trifloxystrobin 25% WG @0.1%.