Management of Dry Root Rot of Chickpea Using Potential Trichoderma sp. and Effective Fungicide under Field Conditions

Abstract

Chickpea is a highly nutritious grain legume crop belongs to the family Leguminaceae usually grown after rainy season on conserved soil moisture conditions during winter in the tropics and spring in the temperate and Mediterranean regions. It is widely appreciated as a health food. The efficacy of fungicide and talc based formulation of potential biocontrol agent (CRT-4) either alone or in integration with oil cakes was evaluated against dry root rot of chickpea under field conditions at RARS Farm, Nandyal during rabi, 2019-20 and 2020-21 and the results revealed that seed treatment with Tebuconazole @1.25 g kg-1 + Trichoderma @ 10 g kg-1 seed and soil application of castor cake @ 250 kg ha-1 recorded lowest incidence of dry root rot disease (11.70%), highest root and shoot lengths of 10.14 cm and 28.09 cm respectively, with a seed yield of 1581 kg ha-1 and with B:C ratio of 1.87 followed by seed treatment with Tebuconazole @ 1.25 g kg-1 + Trichoderma @ 10 g kg-1 seed and soil application of neem cake @ 500 kg ha-1 with incidence of 13.93 per cent, root and shoot lengths of 9.40 and 24.64 cm, seed yield of 1426 kg ha-1 and B:C ratio of 1.64. It is here by concluded that the effective treatment combination may be suggested to the farming community to adopt in the chickpea fields for the management of dry root rot of chickpea.