Sahu, R.K.Rautela, Ambika2018-10-162018-10-162014-06http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810081159Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is one of the most important economically valuable and vegetatively propagated sugar producing crop in the world. It is cultivated in the tropics and sub-tropics and contributes nearly 60 percent of the world’s sugar production and provides various by-products like molasses, fly ash, press-mud, bagasse etc. These by-products are the raw material for several useful products. More than 55 diseases of Sugarcane have been reported so far from India. Among different diseases of Sugarcane, red rot is one of the most important and dreadful disease caused by the fungus Colletotrichum falcatum Went. In the present investigation, experiments were conducted on isolation and purification of red rot pathogen, morphological and cultural characterization of the field isolates and their comparison with known pathotypes to assess if there was any new pathotype of C. falcatum, in-vitro evaluation of different fungicides, botanicals, bio-control agents and essential oils against C. falcatum and in-vivo evaluation of fungicides, botanicals and bio-control agents and also to study their impact on various yield attributes and disease incidence. On the basis of cultural and morphological characters it was deduced that the characters of Pant isolate (isolated from CRC Pantnagar, from variety Co 1148) resembled the known pathotype Cf-08 whereas the characters of Bilaspur isolate (isolated from Bilaspur, District: Rampur, from variety Co 8436) were identical to that of Cf-09 and thus no new pathotype was found. Among the six botanicals (viz. Aloevera, Eucalyptus, Marigold, Neem, Ocimum and Parthenium) evaluated, Parthenium was found highly effective against pathogen. Out of nine strains of Trichoderma harzianum (viz. TCMS- 4, 16, Th-9, 34, 36, 37, 52, 53, 55) evaluated in vitro, Th-53 was found most effective in inhibiting the growth of red rot pathogen. Among the essential oils (viz. Citronella, Lemon-grass, Lemon tulsi, Mentha and Peppermint oil), Peppermint, Mentha and Lemon-tulsi oil were found highly effective in inhibiting the mycelial growth of the pathogen. Out of seven fungicides (viz. Difenoconazole 25 EC, Tebuconazole 25 EC, Carbendazim 50 WP, Ridomil MZ 72 WP, Captan 75 WP, Mancozeb 75 WP and Triadimefon 25 WP) tested, Carbendazim and Tebuconazole were found highly effective in inhibiting the growth of red rot pathogen C. falcatum. Under field conditions application of Carbendazim showed lesser disease incidence (17.52%), followed by PB-2 (18.25%) in comparison to check (48.26%) and also enhanced the growth parameters of Sugarcane crop.ennullThesis