Efficacy of Bio-Control Agents Against Sclerotium Rolfsii Causing Collar Rot Disease of Chickpea, Under in Vitro Conditions

Abstract

Chickpea is the most important pulse crop widely grown in India, accounts for nearly 75 per cent of the total pulse production in the world. Chickpea crop is prone to many diseases. Among these, collar rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii is one of the destructive soil-borne diseases of fungal origin and which is gaining importance elsewhere has been recently observed in and around different parts of country is a serious hazard. S. rolfsii survives in mycelium in the infected tissues and plant debris and as sclerotial structures in the soil or associated with plant debris and usually attacks the collar region of plants. Biological control of the disease through antagonists is an eco-friendly approach apart from superior alternative to the use of chemicals. In the present study, the four antagonistic micro-organisms were evaluated by dual culture and paper disc technique for their antagonistic effect against S. rolfsii under in-vitro conditions. Maximum inhibition of mycelial growth (78.61%) was noticed in T. viride which was followed by T. harzianum (75.28%). Least inhibition was observed in P. fluorescence (68.89%).