Abstract:Chickpea (
Cicer arietinum L.), also referred to as Poor man’s meat, is an important nutraceutical leguminous crop contributing nearly 42 to 47 per cent of the total pulse production in India. However, wilt complex is a major constraint to chickpea production worldwide. Keeping in view the importance of chickpea wilt complex, an extensive survey was conducted in purposively selected 200 farmer’s fields covering 40 villages of 10 major chickpea growing districts of Uttar Pradesh
viz. Banda, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, Jalaun, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lalitpur, Mahoba, Pratapgarh and Unnao to assess severity of wilt complex in these areas during the year 2017-18.
During the survey, it was discovered that wilt complex disease occurred in all the major chickpea growing districts of Uttar Pradesh where Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri was the most predominant pathogen and Fusarium wilt incidence was recorded to be maximum ranging from 12.8 percent (Malasa village in Kanpur Dehat) to 48 percent (Barua Kalijar village in Banda) followed by incidence of dry root rot caused by Rhizoctonia bataticola ranging from 3.2 percent (Jamar village in Unnao) to 17 percent (Shah Patan village in Banda) and incidence of collar rot disease caused by Sclerotium rolfsii ranging from 1.4 percent (Dholwa village in Unnao) to 12 percent (Poonch village in Jhansi) respectively. Highest average wilt complex incidence (69.25%) with maximum average Fusarium wilt incidence (43.05%) and maximum average dry root rot incidence (15.35%) was observed at Banda followed by Mahoba (62.7% Wilt complex, 39.3% Fusarium wilt, 14.5% Dry root rot), Jhansi (61.3% Wilt complex, 36.4% Fusarium wilt, 13.4% Dry root rot), Hamirpur (50.55% Wilt complex, 32.5% Fusarium wilt, 10.1% Dry root rot) and Chitrakoot (47.55% Wilt complex, 32.45% Fusarium wilt, 7.75% Dry root rot) respectively.