Vol. 12, Issue 2 (2023)

Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) is one of the major pulse crop of tropical and sub-tropical region. It is cultivated by small and marginal farmers under rainfed condition because of its ability to tolerate against drought and residual moisture. It is affected by many fungal and viral diseases and among all the diseases, dry root rot caused by Macrophomina phaseolina is one of the most common fungal pathogen which causes ultimate yield loss in pigeonpea crop. Results revealed that all the bioagents evaluated, exhibited fungistatic/antifungal activity against test pathogen and significantly inhibited its growth over untreated control. Trichoderma asperellum found most effective with highest mycelial growth inhibition (92.03%) of the test pathogen. The second and third inhibitor antagonists found were

T. hamatum and T. harzianum with mycelial growth inhibition of (85.00%) and (79.59%), respectively. These were followed by T. koningii (49.67%) and T. virens (48.52%), respectively. However, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Bacillus subtilis were found with least mycelial growth inhibition of (28.70%) and (18.67%), respectively.