Sustainable Plant Disease Management of Wilt of Chickpea Caused by Fungi-Nematode Interaction

Fungi and bacteria are being developed into biological pesticides in agriculture. Pseudomonas fluorescence and Trichoderma viride were tested against M. incognita and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri in pots and in infested field. In the pots Trichoderma viride were applied in seed, soil and foliar. The results indicated a significantly remarkable reduction of M. incognita population in the treatment of Trichoderma viride (soil) followed by (seed) and (foliar) application. Further it was also observed the Trichoderma viride enhanced plant growth parameters of chickpea and reduced the incidence of Fusarium wilt disease of chickpea up to 70% in soil treatment followed by 66% seed treatment 49% foliar application form control. In the infested (fusarium wilt and M. incognita) field microplot Trichoderma viride and Pseudomonas fluorescence were applied @ 3kg /ha in soil and @ 3g/kg in seed. Results indicate that both bio-agents treatments significantly reduced the formation of root-knot population as compared to control. Application of both the bio-agents significantly enhanced plant growth parameters and no. of grain pods/ plant as compared with control. Both the bio-agents also reduced significantly incidence of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp ciceri as compared to control. In comparing the two bio-agents it was observed that wilt incidence was lowest in the treatments of Pseudomonas fluorescence (soil treatment) 15.1% followed by Pseudomonas fluorescence (seed treatment) 20.8%, Trichoderma viride (soil treatment) 26.2%, and Trichoderma viride (seed treatment) 31.6%.