Prevalence of Collar Rot of Tomato Caused by Sclerotium rolfsii (Sacc.) under the Red and Lateritic Zone of West Bengal, India

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) a member of the family Solanaceae, is the world's largest vegetable crop after potato and sweet potato. Diseases of tomato act as the chief limiting factor to its economic production. Recently, the collar rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii is becoming sever disease of tomato in India. Crop Losses up to 30 per cent due to collar rot disease have been reported by many researchers in this crop. Hence to get a preliminary idea regarding the incidence level and pattern of prevalence of the disease in the agro-ecological condition of undulating red and lateritic zone of West Bengal, a roving survey was conducted at different locations of the aforesaid agro climatic zone during the crop growing season of 2014-15 and 2015-16. The pooled analysis of two years data revealed that disease incidence was ranged from 7.61 to 21.79 % in this zone and the Purulia district had maximum level of disease incidence ranging from 13.14 to 21.79 % followed by Bankura districts 11.90 to 16.64 %, Birbhum district 9.75 to 17.73%, Burdwan district 7.61 to 14.54 %. Paschim Medinipur district was noticed with less incidence levels ranging from 9.08 to 9.51 %. This study provided an elementary idea about the disease incidence pattern in this zone as well as paved the path for seeking resistance sources under local conditions and recommendation of proper farming practices to combat the drastic effects of collar rot disease