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Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops under Hill Agro-Ecosystem

Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management, 2012

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31
Integrated Disease Management of
Field Crops under Hill Agro-Ecosystem

S.K. SINGH, DEEPAK KUMAR AND P.K. SINGH

The global importance of cereal crops to the human diet and moreover to
the written history of man and agriculture cannot be overstated. Cereal grains
are the fruit of plants belonging to the grass family (Gramineae) most important
group of food crops produced in the world. Nutritionally, they are important
sources of dietary protein, carbohydrates, complex vitamin B, vitamin E, iron,
trace of minerals, and fiber. It has been estimated that global cereal
consumption directly provides about 50 per cent of protein and energy
necessary for the human diet. Some cereals, notably wheat, contain proteins
that form gluten, which is essential for making bread. Major cereal crops
produced worldwide include wheat, rice and maize. Wheat, rice, maize,
sorghum, and millet are produced in large quantities in India.

Integrated Disease Management

Disease control is, managing the plant disease severity below the economic
threshold following economically viable, eco-friendly and easily operational
procedures. The position of IDM in the overall agricultural system indicates
598 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

clearly that it is an important sub-system and interacts with other such systems
that fall under the cropping system.

Surveillance of Disease
Surveillance of crop health is an important component of integrated
disease management system. Disease surveillance includes the monitoring of
disease prevalence and severity. Surveillance helps in the identification of
potentially important diseases in early stage of development. Surveillance
focuses primarily on decision making for the selection of proper timing of
pesticide application and prevents from unnecessary uses of chemical in the
agriculture system. Thus surveillance, along with other logistic support, may
be an effective and important tool of disease forecasting.

Resistant Cultivars
The use of resistant varieties may be the main component in disease control
in several crops. Varietal replacement provides a spatial and temporal
discontinuity of susceptible host against the pathogen. This approach reduces
the disease severity and the extent of the losses. The use of resistant varieties
is the cheapest, safest and the most effective approach of plant disease
management. The important resistant varieties developed to counter the
diseases epidemics of various crop shown in Table 1.

Table 1 : Important resistant varieties of crops at present under cultivation.

Crop Varieties Resistant to
Rice Vikramarya Rice tungro virus
Ajaya Bacterial leaf blight
Tulsi, Rasi, IR 64 Rice blast
Suraksha Multiple disease resistance
Wheat PBW 550 Rust, Blight and Karnal bunt

Resistance may be defined as a inherent capability of host plant to reduce

the chance and degree of infection and disease development. Any variety
that expresses a high degree of resistance to certain specific race(s) is considered
to be vertical resistance (Vander plank, 1963). Vertical resistance to specific
races is generally governed either by a single (monogenic) dominant gene or
by a few (oligogenic) dominant genes. Horizontal resistance reduced the rate
of disease spread and is evenly spread against all races of the pathogen.

Hot Spot Testing

In India, various types of climate and weather provide an opportunity to
evaluate the host resistance against the various pathogens at hot spots. The
Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 599

pathologists have confirmed several resistance stocks by repeated testing them

under these hot spot condition.

Gene Deployment
Gene deployment strategies are applicable for long distance spreading of
diseases like the black, brown and yellow rusts of wheat, rice tungro disease
and several other pathogens. The spatial and temporal deployment of resistant
genes has immensely benefited India in many crops diseases including the
wheat diseases.

Cultural Control
The proper and judicious use of fertilizers or nutrients, sowing time
adjustment, proper soil and water management, crop rotation, sanitation and
proper weed management help in reducing the losses due to different diseases
and resulting better yield.

Avoidance of Pathogen
Smut and ergot of bajra are more severe in wet areas where rain occurs
for longer period during the flowering stage of the crop. A number of soil
borne diseases can be prevented if the same crop is not grown in the same
field year after year.

Crop Rotation
Crop rotation helps to control many soil borne diseases, such as wilts of
arhar and linseed, smut of bajra, bunt of wheat and root rot of vegetables
crops (Table 2).

Table 2 : Important diseases of crop plant controlled by crop rotation.

Disease Pathogen Crop interval Rotation crop

(years)
White rot of pea Sclerotium cepivorum 8-10 Non host
Anthracnose of pea Colletotrichum pici 2+ Non host
Seedling blight of pea Rhizoctonia solani 1+ Cereals and corms
Potato scab Streptomyces scabies 1+ Soyabean
Flag smut of wheat Urocystis tritici 1 Except wheat
Soil rot of tomato R. solani 1 Pangola grass
Sorghum stalk rot Fusarium moniliforme 2 Winter wheat

(Source : Paroda, 1997).

600 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

Sanitation
Field sanitation is another effective tool for controlling diseases. Burning
of disease stubbles or previous crop refuse is common practice in this method.
Removal of crop debris and the irrigation water regulation from fields with
disease crops also help in reducing the number of primary inoculum and
further spread of the disease. This method is found very effective in case of
soil borne diseases, caused by species of Fusarium sp., Verticillium sp., Rhizoctonia
sp., Sclerotium sp. and Sclerotinia sp.

Rogueing
Roguing of diseased is used for management of simple interest type of
disease as loose smut of wheat, yellow vein mosaic of okra, panama disease
of banana etc. This is the practice of careful removal and destruction of infected
plants or plant parts from the field at an early stage which minimize the foci
of infection and preventing wide spread of pathogen.

Heat Treatment and Solarization

Hot water treatment of seeds is most successful and useful to eliminate
Ustilago segetum tritici from wheat seeds, Alternaria brassicae from cabbage
seeds. Hot water treatment is effective for inactivating the virus inoculum
present in planting materials like bulbs and suckers etc. Heat treatment of
planting sets in sugarcane eliminates the red rot fungus effectively. Soil
solarization, covering the soil with polythene sheets, exposing the soil by deep
ploughing in summer and solar radiation eliminates several soil borne disease
and nematodes in the soil.

Trap Crops
Decoy or trap crop are the non host crops which are sown with the main
crop with the purpose of reduction of inoculum potential of soil borne
pathogens. This is achieved by stimulating the dormant propagules of the
pathogens in the absence of the host.

Quarantine and Exclusion of Pathogen Inoculum

The aim of quarantine is preventing new disease and pathogen to a newer
area and avoiding contact between the pathogen and the host. Seed
certification and growing crops in the region unfavourable for a particular
pathogen are the means for preventing the further spread of the pathogen.
Quarantine is the legal restriction on movement of agricultural commodities
from one area to another area for the purpose of exclusion, prevention or
delay in the spread of the plant pests and diseases in an unaffected area. In
1914, Govt. of India passed the destructive insect pest act (DIP act) prohibiting
Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 601

or restricting the import of plant and plant materials, insects, fungi etc. to
India from foreign countries.

Biological Control
The natural mortality of the pathogen by parasites, predators or competitor
fungus is the most important way to minimize the pest outbreaks. The use of
natural parasites, predators or competitor fungus is another important
component of IDM, which can be useful in managing the pathogens and
crop diseases. In this method of disease control care has to be taken so that
the organism used for control of the pathogen should not be pathogenic to
crop concerned or to the other crops that are likely to be grown in the cropping
sequence. The example of antagonistic micro-organism enlisted in Table 3.

Table 3 : Management of plant pathogens through biocontrol agents.

Diseases Pathogens Antagonist (s)

Chickpea wilt Fusarium oxysporum f. sp.ciceri Trichoderma harzianum
Cotton root rot Rhizoctonia solani T. harzianum
Spot blotch of wheat Bipolaris sorokiniana Chaetomium globosum
Cucumber fruit rot Rhizoctonia solani T. harzianum
Damping off of Pythium spp. T. harzianum
vegetables (Bean, Rhizoctonia solani T. harzianum
Cotton, Solanaceous S. rolfsii T. harzianum
Vegetables, Tobacco)
(Source : Paroda, 1997).

Transgenic Plants
Biotechnological approach provides a new tool in plant disease
management through the resistant genes transfer into agronomically superior
genotypes for the management of diseases. For the management of viral
diseases coat protein mediated resistance appears to be very promising.
Chitinase gene of plant and bacterial origin has also been introduced into
Rhizobium meliloti, Pseudomonas flourescencs. These bacteria, colonizing around
the roots carrying the chitinase gene and suppresses wilt disease caused by
Fusarium oxysporum. Cloning of plant defense genes conferring resistance to
varieties of bacteria, fungal and virus diseases has need urgent attention for
management of crop diseases. Transfer of Xa-24 gene of Oryza longistaminata
to rice cultivars which confer resistance against different races of bacterial
blight.
602 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

Major Field Crops

The major field crops grown in the tropical and sub-tropical areas are
wheat, rice and maize. All the cereals commonly grown in this area are prone
to a number of fungal, bacterial and viral diseases. These diseases are the
main constraints in the cultivation of these high value cereal crops. Few diseases
of major importance are being discussed below.

Important Wheat Diseases and their Management

Wheat is most extensively grown cereal crops. Wheat is the second major
staple Food Crop, In India, it is the second important crop, next to rice, with
a total production of 64.5 million tones grown over 24 million hectare area.
One of the major constraints in increasing production of wheat are diseases
that effect crop yield as high as 10 per cent. Wheat is attacked by a number of
fungi, bacteria, viruses etc. But the fungal diseases are the most predominant
biotic stress as compared to other microorganisms. The most important fungal
diseases that affect wheat crop are stem, leaf and stripe rusts, loose smut,
karnal bunts, foliar Blight, powdery mildew, flag smut and hill bunt. In wheat,
brown rust, yellow rust, black rust, loose smut, karnal bunt and powdery
mildew were observed to be important diseases in different states. Karnal
bunt and foliar blights were more damaging whereas stem rust became
relatively less important after the green revolution (Chander et al., 2003).

Wheat Rusts
The three important rust diseases occurs on wheat viz., stem or black
rust (Puccinia graminis Pers. f. Sp. tritici Schof.), leaf or brown rust (Puccinia
recondita Rob. ex. Desm. F. sp. tritici ) and stripe or yellow rust (Puccinia
striiformis West). Rust diseases are responsible for causing huge economics
losses. In India leaf rust are most important diseases and prevalent all over
the country. The disease in north-western region appears in late January and
assumes epidemic growth rate in the month of February- march when the
crop is in anthesis or grain filling stage but in case of stem rust it is mainly
prevalent in central and peninsular region of country but it appear very late
with low intensity in the northern belt. Stripe rust is restricted only in northern
parts of the country particularly in foot hills of Himalayas and adjoining plains
of north-western region. Spores of both Puccinia recondita f. sp. Brown and P.
striiformis (yellow rust of wheat) are thought to be primarily dispersed by
wind and rainfall has the potential to spread both brown rust and yellow
rust of wheat (Geagea et al., 2000).
Rust diseases are responsible for huge economics losses. In 1972-73, stem
and stripe rust which appears in epidemic form in Punjab, Haryana and
western Uttar Pradesh were responsible for a loss of nearly 0.8 to 1.5 million
Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 603

tones of wheat. In 1980, leaf rust epidemic in Uttar Pradesh and parts of
Bihar caused a loss of one million tones of wheat.

Symptoms
In case of stem rust the pustules appear a narrow, dark brown elliptical,
parallel with the axis of the stem, on the leaf, leaf sheath and on glumes of the
spike. The epidermis covering the pustules rupture irregularly, exposing masses
of reddish brown uredospores. The pustules of leaf rust are small, oval shaped,
orange to orange brown in colour, scattered on leaf and leaf sheath. Uredinaks
pustules are may also developed on awns, glumes, peduncles, and internodes.
Stem rust has been a serious disease of wheat, barley, oat and rye, as well as
various important grasses. Infections in cereals occur mainly on stems and
leaf sheaths, but occasionally they may be found on leaf blades and glumes as
well. The first macroscopic symptom usually appears as a small chlorotic
fleck, after a few days of infection. About 8-10 days after infection, a long
pustule is formed by rupturing the host epidermis from pressure of a mass
urediospores of brick-red colour produced in the infection. The powdery
masses of urediospores appear similar to rust spots on a weathered iron
surface. With age, the infection ceases production of brick-red urediospores
and produces a layer of black teliospores in their place, causing the stems of
heavily infected plants to appear black in the late season (Leona and Szabo,
2005).

Integrated Management
Grow resistant varieties of wheat recommended for particular area and
grow different varieties at the farm level. Apply balanced dose of nitrogen
and potash. Spray Dithane M 45 @ 0.2% or propiconazole or tebuconazole @
0.1% along with 0.1% sandovit. Kalappanavar (2008) reported that the
fungicide propiconazole performed best followed by triadimefon and
hexaconazole and in the categories other than fungicides, neem leaf extract,
Trichoderma harzianum and Panchgavya were the succeeding treatments
effective against leaf rust of wheat. The yield of the plots sprayed with
propiconazole, triadimefon and hexaconazole were significantly superior with
low intensity of the leaf rust on yield and higher 1000-grain weight. Parsons
(2000) found that the phosphorus (P) fertilization had a moderately
suppressive effect on leaf rust and the increased yield due to production of
about 50% more ear heads per unit area apparently from more prolific tillering
and potassium (K) fertilization reduced leaf rust severity and improved yield
by increasing kernel weight. P and K fertilization along with fungicide
application is an important management tool for reducing disease and
increasing winter wheat yield.
604 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

Smuts and Bunts

Five bunt and smut diseases namely Loose smut (Ustilago segetum (Pers.)
Roussel tritici, Flag smut (Urocystis agropyri (preuss) schroet), Common bunt
(Tilletia caries (DC) Tul.) and Tilletia floetida (Wallr. Liro.), Dwarf bunt
(T. controversa Kuhn) and Karnal bunt (Neovossia indica (Mitra) Mundkur)
attack wheat crops.
Loose smut is more severe in north than south India and can causes yield
losses up to 2-4 percent in north western India. Karnal bunt has assumed
importance in recent years due to its quarantine importance. Reduction in
yield due to karnal bunt in India is not beyond 0.2 to 0.5 percent but 3-5
percent infected grains can cause blackening of whole meal. Hill bunt and
flag smut are of minor importance because of their restricted distribution in
isolated pockets of Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab.

Symptoms
In case of loose smut entire inflorescence, except the rachis, is replaced
by masses of smut spores. These black teliospores often are blown away by
the wind, leaving only the bare rachis and remnants of other floral structure.
Karnal bunt is not easily detected prior to harvest, since it is usual for
only a few kernels per spike to be affected by the disease. Following harvest,
disease kernels can be easily detected by visual infections. A mass of black
teliospores replaces a portion of endosperm, and the pericarp may be intact
or ruptured. Disease kernels give off a fetid or fishy smell when crushed.
Karnal bunt of wheat is caused by the fungus Tilletia indica, which partially
converts kernels into sori filled with teliospores. Despite minor overall yield
and quality losses, the disease is of considerable international quarantine
concern (Goates and Jackson, 2006).

Integrated Management
Flag Smut
Flag smut of wheat incited by Urocystis agropyri could be managed by
growing resistant cultivars like WH 293 or HD 2329. Seed treatment with
tubeconazole @ 2.0 g/kg, or carboxin and carbendazim @ 2.5 g/kg seed
reduced cent per cent disease incidence. Application of poultry manure
@ 4–6 t per ha managed flag smut. Nl60P50 kg per ha and early or late sowing
were found effective in management of the disease (Kumar and Singh, 2004).

Loose Smut
Sowing of resistant varieties like Kalyan Sona, Sonalika and PU 18 is
mainly adopted for the management of the disease. Seed treatment with
Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 605

Vitavax @ 2-2.5 g/kg seed before sowing can manage the disease by reducing
the seed borne primary inoculum. Roguing out suspected disease ears at the
time of ear emergence and destroyed them properly by burning or burring
under the ground. Soaking of seeds and solar heat treatment of seeds is
practicable in hot summer areas of plains. During bright sunny days in the
last weeks of May or first week of June soak the seed in water for about four
hours in the morning and dry it under hot sun in the afternoon. Storage of
properly dried seed for use in the next season is also reduce the disease
incidence.

Karnal Bunt
Sowing of resistant varieties and use of disease free seeds are the important
control measure for the management of the disease. Treatment of the seeds
before sowing with Vitavax @ 2-2.5 g/kg seeds minimize the disease intensity
through elimination of seed borne infection. Avoidance of excessive irrigation
at the time of flowering also reduce the disease intensity.

Common Bunt
Treatment of the seeds before sowing with Vitavax @ 2-2.5 g/kg seeds
reduce the disease intensity by elimination of seed borne primary inoculums.
Cultivation of common bunt resistant varieties like Kalyan Sona, Panjamo-62
and PU-18.

Foliar Blight Complex

A number of pathogens causing blight, blotch and spots are associated
with wheat in India. Bipolaris sorokiniana Shoem. is the major pathogen
followed by Alternaria triticina prasada and prabhu. Drechslera tritici repentis
and Aternaria alternata are also associated with wheat but are not very
prominent. Both the pathogen are widely prevelant in Bihar, West Bengal,
Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa. Of late B. sorokiniana has made
appearance in North western region of the Indo-Gangatic plains also.
The importance of foliar blights must be expressed in terms of yield losses.
Recent study on yield losses due to B. sorokiniana revealed that yield of wheat
cultivars UP 2338, UP 262, HP 1633 may be reduced upto 36.24, 20.93 and
22.26 per cent respectively due to spot blotch disease.

Symptoms
Alternaria blight symptoms appear as small, oval, discoloured lesion,
irregularly scattered on leaves. As lesion enlarged, they become irregular and
dark brown to grey surrounded by yellow margin. Later several lesions coalesce
and cover large areas exhibiting bunt appearance. The lesion on leaves caused
606 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

by B. sorokiniana are light brown to almost black, which are circular linear or
elliptical. A well developed lesion is typically elliptical with abundant
sporulation.

Integrated Management
Cultivation of resistant varieties is an important component of disease
management. Hot water treatment of seeds at 52ºC for 10 minutes before
sowing provides good control of the disease by reducing primary inoculum.
Seed treatment with fungicide vitavax @ 2.5 g/kg of seeds also effective for
the management of the disease in the field. Use of balanced NPK fertilizers
and irrigation reduce the intensity. Spraying of plants with Dithane M 45 @
0.2% or propiconazole or tebuconazole @ 0.1% at 25-35 days interval starting
from the the first symptoms appearance in the field.

Powdery Mildew
Powdery mildew of wheat is caused by Erysiphe graminis tritici. It is widely
distributed in the humid and sub humid wheat growing regions of the world.
It is basically important disease of northern hilly region of India. This disease
is also occurs in the north-western region of the Indo Gangatic Plains where
stripe and brown rust are the potential threat to wheat production. It is believed
that heavy attack of powdery mildew in hilly and north-west plain regions
result in yield losses through reduced grain size.

Symptoms
All the green part of the plant, the upper surface or undersize of the
leaves, sometimes both surface together, the stem or even the ears are affected
by the pathogens, exhibiting white to grey coloured powdery masses on the
plant surface. The cottony powdery mass contains the conidia and
conidiophores of the fungus. As the season progresses, small black cleistothecia
developed on the powdery mass. The infected leaves are twisted, crinkled
and deformed, infected plant become yellow and photosynthetic rates are
severely affected.

Integrated Management
Sowing of resistant varieties is the major control measure. Burning of the
previous crop refuses in the field after harvesting the crop could reduce the
disease intensity. Spraying of the fungicide mixture of 16 parts Dithane M-45
and 4 parts Karathane 25 WP @ 2 kg/ha in 800 litres water. Two to three
sprays of the mixture should be given at an interval of 10-15 days if losses are
expected to very high.
Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 607

Rice Diseases and their Integrated Management

In India rice is grown in various agro-climatic regions ranging from
Kashmir to Kanyakumari as upland, medium and low land rice. Total area
coverage under rice in India is 42.4 million hectares. A brief account of the
important rice diseases and their management strategies are given below.
Rice blast : (Pyricularia grisea)
The disease is considered to be most important one among all the rice
diseases not only India but all the rice growing area of the world. The loss due
to this disease may reach up to 50 per cent and sometimes the complete loss
of the crop has been recorded in different areas under epiphytotic condition.

Symptoms
Spot appear as distinct large, indefinite, spindle shaped, grey centred
and lavender blue, purple grey horizon with yellow margin on leaf blade
(Fig. 7). On the stem, one or two nods just below the panicles, grayish black
or dark lesions appear. The grains are mostly half filled or unfilled and
generally grains are partially chaffy, brittle or unfilled; panicle show white
appearance.

Integrated Management
Cultivation of resistant varieties like Vandana, Pathara, Hira, Savitri,
Gayatri, Ratana, Annada, Udaya, Sarasa etc. help to get effective control of
rice blast diseases. Use of healthy seeds for nursery raising and seed treatment
with thiram @ 2.5 g or bavistin 2 g/kg of seed gives good control by avoiding
the primary inoculum. Burning of affected straw and stubbles after harvest is
also a good practice of disease management. High dose of nitrogenous fertilizer
(> 60 kg/ha) increases the disease intensity so, it should be avoided and
phosphorus and potash fertilizer (60 kg/ha) should be use to reduce the
epidemics of the disease. To avoid vulnerable phase for blast development,
planting of crop adjusted in such a way that active tillering stage should not
fall during 3rd week of September to 2nd week of November. In endemic area
the disease appears every year spray the crop with 0.1 % Hinosan 50 EC
(1 ml/ litre) or Edifenphos (0.06%) or copper oxychloride (0.3%). Singh et al.
(1975) found hinosan @ 0.1 per cent superior to other treatments. Two
treatments of azoxystrobin and trifloxystrobin at 250 and 125 g/ha,
respectively, were more effective for management of blast and neck blast and
reduced incidence and severity by 90-100% and by 75-90%, respectively.
Antibiotic Kasugamycin @ 20-30 mg/l to be found very effective in preventing
secondary spread.
Brown spot : (Bipolaris oyzae)
608 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

Symptoms
The spot are small, definite, some spot may be oval to oblong, light brown
or straw centre and dark reddish brown margin. Dark brown to black, oval
or oblong spots on the glumes, whole surface of grain black and velvety.

Integrated Management
Treatment of the seeds with thiram or bavistin 2 g/kg of seeds. Add
murate of potash to correct the potash deficiency in the soil and apply balanced
dose of fertilizer to minimize the disease in the field. Three to four spray of
Dithane M-45 @ 2.5 g/l of water or bavistin or propiconazole 0.1 per cent at
15 days interval just before the appearance of first symptoms of the disease.
Cultivation of moderately resistant varieties like Bala, Krishna, Sabarmati and
IR 24. Seeds should not be collected from the diseased fields and plants.

Sheath Blight
Paracer and Chahal (1963) first described the disease in detail from
Gurdaspur, Punjab. Later, this disease was reported from Uttar Pradesh (Kohli,
1966), Orissa (Das, 1975) and Tamil Nadu (Kanniyan and Prasad,1976) as
well. Sheath blight a fungal disease of rice caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn.,
is prevalent in upland and low land rice. It is gaining importance in Andhra
Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu and its incidence has also
been recorded in Jammu and Kashmir, Orrisa, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
The extent of damage due to sheath blight is more than 25 per cent. Roy
(1979) reported that yield losses vary from 10 to 36 per cent depending upon
the crop growth stage at which the disease first appears.

Symptoms
On leaf blade greenish grey irregular lesions with dark line on margins,
lesion large and develop irregularly on older plants. The symptoms appear
on stem and sheath with large greenish grey or dark edged whitish lesions
which are oval, oblong, cobra patches, irregular and necrotic. Small, white or
brown, globular sclerotial bodies are loosely attached to the surface.

Integrated Management
The disease control strategy should be rather preventive to realize
maximum yields. Using seeds from healthy crop. Deep ploughing and use of
limited but adequate nitrogenous fertilizers. Avoiding close planting and follow
field sanitation i.e. burning of disease straw, stubbles and chaff and eradication
of graminaceous weeds and water hyacinth in and around the field. Soil
amendment with green manure and rotation of rice with dicot crops. Avoiding
field to field irrigation. Some of promising ones with moderate resistant to
Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 609

sheath blight are T141, CR 1014, Ptb 21, Ptb 33, Swarndhan, IET 6056 IET
6105, CR-44-11, Krishna and Saket-I. The disease can be controlled by need
based application of fungicides such as Bavistin or MBC (0.1%) and delayed
top dressing of nitrogenous fertilizer when 10 per cent or more tillers are
affected during early planting of mid tillering. Second spraying of Bavistin or
MBC (0.1%) is done when 10 per cent or more tillers are affected during
panicle initiation to booting stage. Bhuyan et al. (1994) reported the antagonist
activity of Trichoderma viride, Trichoderma harzianum and Aspergillus terreus
against R. solani. Baby and Manibhushanrao (1996) evaluated Trichoderma
spp. and Gliocladium virens as well as some vesicular arbuscular fungi against
sheath blight (R.solani) of rice in field and reported that Tirchoderma spp.
(T. harzianum and T. longibrachiotum) and Gliocladium virens were equally
effective in controlling the disease.
Bacterial blight of rice : (Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae)
This is also most important disease of rice and appears in rice field
cultivated under low land areas. The losses due to bacterial blight may reach
30 to 50 per cent. In certain years rice fields infected with blight in different
states are reported to suffer yield loss up to 60 per cent.

Symptoms
The disease appears in two phases viz., wilt or kresek phase and leaf
blight phase.

Kresek Phase
This is most destructive phase of the disease which result from the early
systemic infection. The leaves roll completely, droop and turn yellow or grey
ultimately the tillers wither away. Affected shoot may be completely killed in
severe attack.

Leaf Blight Phase

The symptom is characterized by the appearance of straw coloured stripe
with wavy margins generally are both side of the leaves. This stripe usually
start from the tip and extend down wards the leaves turn straw yellow.
Yellowish bacterial ooze appears on the surface which dry into bead like
encrustations if there is no rain for a few days. This blight phase usually
appears 4-6 week after transplanting. The grain are partially filled or become
chaffy in the disease plants.

Integrated Management
Use disease free seeds from the reliable sources. Drain the standing water
in the field from time to time. Incorporate balanced dose of NPK fertilizers
610 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

after soil testing and avoid use of heavy dose of nitrogen fertilizer aggravates
the disease. Spray the crop with a mixture of copper oxychloride and
streptomycin. Apply 7.5 g streptomycin or Agrimycin and 500 g Copper
oxychloride (fytolan or blitox-50) in 500 litre water. Seed soaking for 12 hours
and treating in hot water at 530C for 30 minutes will make the seeds free from
bacterium. Cultivation of resistant varieties like Ratna, Pusa 2-21, IR 20,
Prasad, Govind, IR 24, Jaya, Vijaya, Shakti, Rudra, Shankar, Parijat, Keshari,
Annapurna, IR 36, Mahalaxmi.

Maize Diseases and their Integrated Management

Maize is not only utilized as a staple food by the large population in rural
areas, but is also a crop per excellence for industrial use. During the last few
years, there has been progressive escalation in demand for the maize grains
for the value added products. Among the factors adversely affecting
productivity, incidence of diseases in the preharvest stage is prominent.

Foliar Diseases of Maize

In India about twenty foliar diseases are known to occurs on maize.
However, Turcicum leaf blight, Maydis leaf blight and common rust are
considered to be important in terms of geographical distribution and potential
to cause significant yield reductions.

Turcicum leaf blight (Exserohilum turcicum (Pass) Leon. and Suggs.)

Turcicum or northern corn leaf blight (NCLB) incited by the ascomycete
Setosphaeria turcica, anamorph Exserohilum turcicum, is a ubiquitous foliar
disease of maize distributed throughout the world of economic importance
(Dorothea et al., 1998, Welz and Geiger, 2000 and Khampila et al., 2008).
Turcicum leaf blight (TLB) of maize caused by Exserohilum turcicum (Pass)
Leonard. Suggs. is a major production constraint of maize crop in Karnataka
(Harlapur et al., 2008) . This disease is prevalent in the areas where maize is
planted in the highlands (more than 1000 m altitude), Where temperate
conditions prevail and in winter plantings in the plains as the cool/moderate
conditions favour disease development. Shivankar and Shivankar (2000)
reported that inoculated plots showed high incidence of turcicum leaf blight
in AMC1 (39.23%), AMC2 (35.46%), Manjari composite (33.61%) and Kargil
633 (31.42%). The inoculated plots recorded lowest grain yield with significant
losses in the grain yield of from 10.50 to 18.77 per cent.

Symptoms
An early symptom is the easily recognizable; the symptoms produced as
slightly oval, water-soaked, small spots produced on the leaves. These lesions
Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 611

grow into elongated, spindle-shaped necrotic lesions. First symptoms appear

on lower leaves and gradually progress upwards and can lead to complete
burning of the foliage. Turcicum leaf blight (or northern leaf blight) occurs
worldwide and particularly in areas where high humidity and moderate
temperatures prevail during the growing season. Under high humidity and
moderate temperature the whole area becomes necrotic and plants appear
dead. Lesions may also appear on leaf sheaths and husk. The highest disease
severity (55.89%) was observed in Belgaum district and the lowest disease
severity (27.64%) in Koppal district (Harlapu1r et al., 2008).

Management
Harlapur et al. (2007) reported that Neem seed kernel extract @ five per
cent concentration showed maximum inhibition of growth (56.64%) followed
by Aloe vera @ 10 per cent (53.50%). Among the bio-agents, Trichoderma
harzianum was effective in inhibition of growth (65.17%) and in the fungicides
tested, mancozeb @ 0.25 per cent completely inhibited the growth. Carboxin
power @ 0.1 per cent and propiconazole @ 0.1 per cent were the other effective
fungicides. The development of cultivars resistant to E. turcicum seems to be
the most efficient method to control NCLB damage (Khampila et al.,2008).
Vieira et al. (2009) reported that the hybrids of popcorn UEM129, UEM145,
UEM140, UEM116 and UEM101 presented the lowest levels of disease and
were considered the most resistance genotypes. Okori et al. (1999) reported
that the infection by maize streak virus (MSV) masked the symptoms
expression of turcicum leaf blight (TLB).

Maydis Leaf Blight: (Drechslera maydis Nishikado)

The disease is distributed all over the world in warm temperate to tropical
(20-300 C) maize producing areas. The disease symptoms appear as small
and diamond shaped lesions limited by adjacent veins of the leaf. The disease
is favoured by high temperature. The fungus mainly over winters in the plant
debris, although it seed borne nature is established.

Symptom
The young lesions are observed as small diamond shaped lesion. As they
mature the elongation of lesion takes place. Growth is limited to adjacent
veins, so finally the shape of lesion is rectangular of 2 to 3 cm long. Lesions
may coalesce, producing a complete burning of large areas of the leaves. The
symptoms described above correspond to the “O” strain of the fungus. In the
early 1970s the “T” strain caused severe damage to maize cultivars. Lesions
produced by the T strain are oval and larger than those produced by the O
strain. A major difference is that the T strain affects husks and leaf sheaths,
while the O strain normally does not affects husks and leaf sheaths. Maydis
612 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

leaf blight (or southern maize leaf blight) is prevalent in hot and humid maize-
growing areas. The fungus requires slightly higher temperatures than
E. turcicum for infection. Both species are often found on the same plant.

Management
Sprying of any copper fungicides@ 0.3 per cent or Dithane M 25 @ 0.25
per cent after the appearance of the disease gives good result. Kumar et al.
(2009) found that the garlic, clove, neem leaf and tulsi leaf and bael leaf extract
was highly effective in inhibiting the growth of Helminthosporium maydis from
37 to 65 per cent.

Common rust: (Puccinia sorghi Schw.)

This disease is prevalent in all over the world from moderate to severe
form in temperate to semi temperate environments and in the winter season
crop in tropics and high land tropics. Symptoms appear as circular to
elongated brown powdery erumpent pustules on both the leaf surfaces which
turn into black coloured teleutosori on maturity under favourable conditions
for disease development these pustules extent t leaf sheath and husk. This
disease is favoured by moderate temperature (17-25 0C). Shah and Dillard
(2006) reported that for processing sweet corn, every 10% increase in rust
severity reduced yield by 2.4 to 7.0%; the corresponding reduction for fresh
market sweet corn was between 3.0 and 6.2%.

Management
The major approach to management of these diseases has been the
utilization of host resistance. Resistance varieties viz., Ganga 11, Deccan 105
and inbred lines CM 104, Cm 105 have been reported to durable resistance to
this disease. Complete control was obtained by a schedule of four spray
applications of carbamate group of fungicide (Dithane M-45) @ 0.2 % a.i., on
a susceptible cultivar Basi in case of common rust. Reuveni et al. (1994) reported
thata single foliar spray of phosphate salts solution induced systemic resistance
against common rust as expressed by 98% reduction in the number of pustules
of P. sorghi.

Stalk Rot
This group of disease is broadly dividisible into two categories i.e., pre
flowering and post flowering types.

Pythium stalk rot: Pythium aphanidermatum (Eds) Fizt.

This stalk rot is prevalent in the maize growing area of the countries with
sub tropical climate. In India it occurs in considerable proportion in the north
India.
Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 613

In this case the rot is confined to a single basal internodes leading to

destruction of pith parenchyma and subsequent weakening of stalk the infected
plant topple and remain green and do not die upto two weak after attack.
White fluffy growth of the fungus on the breaking point is very common
under high humidity conditions.

Management
Planting should be done timely between 10 and 20th of July, which is
prevalent in North India. Plant population should not exceed 50,000/ha.
Maintenance of good field drainage, and Removal of previous crop debris to
minimize the primary inoculum. Growing of resistant varieties viz., hybrids
Ganga Safed 2, high starch and composite Suwan 1 is recommended for the
disease prone area. Application of Captan @ 120g a.i.,/100 litre of water as
soil drench at the base of the plants when crop is 5 to 7 week old can effectively
check this disease.

Bacterial stalk rot: (Erwinia chrysathnemi pv. zae)

Prasad (1930) firstly reported the bacterial stalk and sheath rot of maize
from Pusa Bihar. The disease is severe in areas of high rain fall like UP, Bihar,
Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.
The disease affects younger plants as well as older plants. The rotting
starts from the lower nodes and moves up and down causing dark soft decay
of the stalk. Stalk rotting causes yellowing and drying of leaves. The symptom
developed as soft rot of stalk tissues followed by rapid wilting and plant death.
The typical characteristics of disease are the omission of fermenting odour
from the site of infection. The vascular bundle of the plant usually remains
intact.
The resistance to disease has been identified as hybrids Ganga safed-2
and inbred lines CM 104 and CM 600. The effective control of the disease by
using bleaching powder (CaOCl2.H2O containing 33% of chlorine) @ 3.3 g/
10 litre of water could be obtained by drenching of the basal stalk region.
Avoidance of water logging and proper drainage also help in reducing disease
incidence. Sharma et al. (1982) and Thind and Soni (1983) reported that two
application of calcium hypochlorite (Klorocin) as drenching near the root
region @ 25 kg/ha at flowering stage after 10 days interval gives good
control.
614 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

Fig. 1 : Brown rust of wheat Fig. 2 : Yellow or stripe rust

Fig. 3 : Loose smut of wheat Fig. 4 : Flag smut of wheat

Fig. 5 : Spot blotch of wheat

Integrated Disease Management of Field Crops 615

Fig. 6 : Powdery mildew of wheat Fig. 7 : Rice blast

Fig. 8 : Leaf spot of rice Fig. 9 : Sheath blight of rice

Fig. 10 : Banded leaf and sheath blight Maize

Photographs courtesy by Dr. S.K. Singh SKUAST-J
616 Ecologically Based Integrated Pest Management

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