Veena, Anil SROOPASHREE, K. M.2018-05-302018-05-302017-08-16Th-11787http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810048128Devastating crop diseases such as Late Blight of Potato and Blast of Rice cause extensive loss of yield globally. The environmental pollution caused by excessive use of agrochemicals, has led to use of biological alternatives such as ‘Compost tea’, an enriched microbial liquid suspension. Earlier work by Anil and Coworkers showed that, aerated Compost Tea (ACT) in an integrated formulation with reduced fungicide (RF) increased plant biomass, chlorophyll, yield and managed Late Blight in Potato field experiments, (Anil et al., 2017). The objective of the present study was to comparatively evaluate the effects of aerated and non-aerated compost tea (ACT & NCT), along with the reduced number of sprays (ACT5, and NCT5) on Potato and Rice crop. All aerated and non aerated compost tea treatments with ten and five sprays resulted in higher biomass, increased chlorophyll, yield. ACT10 sprays among all treatments managed Late Blight of Potato and Blast of Rice to the best extent. However, lower number of sprays and nonaerated formulations also managed the disease. Biochemical analysis indicates induced systemic resistance by induction of defense as evaluated by increased SOD, POX, Phenolic and flavonoid levels. An evaluation of microbial composition showed compost teas have a rich microbiota. The fungal and bacterial isolates from compost tea showed significant inhibition of P. infestans and M. grisae on dual plate inhibition assays. The results of this study indicate that Compost tea based strategy is an eco friendly, effective biocontrol and biofertilizer in managing Late Blight of Potato and Blast of Rice.ennullThesis