Management of Fusarium Wilt of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under the undulating red and lateritic belt of West Bengal

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a vital source of plant derived edible protein in many countries. Indian subcontinent accounts for 90% of the total world chickpea production. The major limiting factor in chickpea production is Fusarium wilt which is caused by F. oxysporum Schlechtend.Fr. f.sp. ciceris causing 10- 15% yield losses annually. Experiments were conducted with a view to minimize the Fusarium wilt with different approaches under field condition at the agricultural farm, Palli-Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agriculture), Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan,West Bengal, during the rabi season of 2012-14. The incidence of Fusarium wilt of chickpea was found to be influenced greatly by changing the date of sowing. The incidence of disease was found to decreased with the early sowing. While, it increased considerably in late sown crop, which sown after the schedule time of sowing i.e. second week of November (11.11.2014). Maximum disease incidence of wilt 21.20 % was recorded from 30 days late shown crop. The disease was reduced greatly in early shown crop and reached the lower level of 6.8% at 30 days early sowing. Of all the bicontrol agents evaluated against F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceris, Trichoderma harzianum showed maximum growth inhibition (80%) followed by Pseudomonas fluorescens 75.55 % and T. viride 64.44 % which differed significantly from each other. Systemic fungicide Carbendazim exhibited maximum fungal growth inhibition (100%) at 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2% concentrations followed by Combi product (Carbendazim 12% + Mancozeb 63%), which gave 88.7 % , 100 % and 100% growth inhibition at 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2 % concentrations respectively. Among the different organic composts, spent mushroom substrate + cow dung+ earth worm compost (EWC) 1:1:1 was found to be most effective in minimizing the disease incidence in field ( 67.8 %) and gave maximum plant height (49.53 cm) at 75 DAS, 1000 seed weight (181g) and 1780 kg/ha yield. Among the oil seed cakes, Til (sesame) cake @ 500 kg/ha performed better in terms of reduction in disease incidence (50.55%) and yield (1680 kg/ha). The present findings highlighting the various approaches of wilt disease management of chickpea which will help the farmers for decision making and maximization of their profit.