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Fresh, cooked and fried seeds of three varieties of groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea L) Nwakara, Kaki and Campalla, were screened to determine the post-harvest seed-borne fungi associated with them. Results obtained showed that no fungi was associated with fresh seeds of Nwakara and kaki varieties, whereas Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. terreus, A. culmorum, A. fumigatus, A. nidulans, A. tamarii, Fusarium moniliforme, Mucor rouxii, Penicillium spp., Cladosporium spp., and Aureobasidium pullulans associated with fried and cooked seeds of the three varieties, Nwakara, Kaki, and Campalla. More fungi were associated with the old varieties than the fresh ones.

The effect of the extract from leaves, bark and root of neem plant (Azadiratcha indica L)on the vegetative growth of Colletotrichum gloeosporoides :soft rot field pathogen of soursop (Annona muricata L) fruits was investigated. The result obtained showed that all the parts of the test plant screened significantly (p<0.05) inhibited the growth of the fungal isolate.The root extract of the test plant gave the highest level of inhibition from the treatment concentration of 300 mg/ml, while the leaf extract was the least. The leaf and the bark extracts completely inhibited the mycelial growth from treatment concentration of 400mg/ml. It was concluded that plant extracts, particularly the one used in this study could offer a safe alternative for use as a botanical fungicide.

Use of seed-dressing fungicides (Bavistin, Benlate, Fernasan-D, Apron Plus 50 DS and Dithane-M45), and soaking and slurry methods at various concentrations, for the control of seed-borne fungi of rice variety Faro 29 in vitro, was investigated. The results obtained showed that all the fungicides significantly inhibited the seed-borne fungi associated with the seeds of the variety at concentrations of 40g/ml, and 50mg/ml (P<0.05), in the soaking method, and at all the concentrations in the slurry method (P<0.05).The mean percentage seed germination , was not below 71%,at all the concentrations in the two methods used . The relevance of this work to the production of rice and food security in Nigeria is discussed. @ JASEM