ECOFRIENDLY MANAGEMENT OF Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. CAUSING FOOT ROT IN FINGER MILLET
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Date
2018-10-29
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UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES GKVK, BENGALURU
Abstract
Foot rot incited by Sclerotium rolfsii Sacc. is a major production constraint in
finger millet in irrigated and high rainfall situations. Roving survey revealed that the foot
rot incidence ranged from 4.45 to 19.91 per cent in different districts of South Karnataka.
Among the native antagonistic isolates of Trichoderma and Pseudomonas from Mandya
district. tested against S. rolfsii in-vitro, Trichoderma isolate CT was very effective by
inhibiting 72.22 per cent of the radial growth; whereas, in Pseudomonas, KP was the
potential isolate with 57.04 per cent inhibition. Amongst the potential native bio-agents;
tested against S. rolfsii under greenhouse condition, Chandagalu isolate (CT) of
Trichoderma and Kannahatty isolate (KP) of Pseudomonas recorded lesser foot rot
incidence and higher grain yield. These elite isolates were identified as T. asperellum and
P. putida respectively through ITS primers and 16s rDNA. Eco-friendly management
practices of foot rot in finger millet under greenhouse and field conditions by different
delivery methods revealed that, seedling root dip followed by soil application of compost
enriched with T. asperellum and P. putida (500 g each) incubated for 15 days and applied
at the rate of 30 kg ac-1
significantly reduced the disease to as low as 2.2 and less than 4
per cent respectively, besides producing higher grain yield and fodder yield. Among the
different finger millet varieties evaluated against S. rolfsii, GPU-28, GPU-48 and KMR204 that recorded less than 5 per cent of mean foot rot incidence were resistant.
Validation to create awareness among the farmers, about the eco-friendly management
practices of foot rot in finger millet, seedling root dip followed by soil application of T.
asperellum and P. putida along with enriched compost revealed reduction in mean per
cent foot rot incidence recording higher grain and fodder yield over the farmers practice.