Prevalence of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L) wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. Ciceris in Bhopal district of Madhya Pradesh

Introduction

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important legume crop cultivated in the Mediterranean region and globally (Saxena, 1990) [5] . It ranks as the third most important pulse crop worldwide, following dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and dry pea (Pisum sativum L.) (Nikam et al., 2007) [4] . Belonging to the sub-family Papilionaceae and the family Leguminaceae, chickpea originated in the Middle East and has since spread to over 45 countries with arid, semi-arid, and subtropical climates and also referred as bengal gram, channa, or garbanzo bean. In India Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are the major producers of chickpea. Among pulses, chickpea is the most flexible crop in terms of acreage and yield. (Anonymous, 2009). Chickpea is highly valued for its nutritious seeds, which are rich in protein (20.5 g), fat (6.05 g) and carbs (63 g) per 100 g seed, making it an increasingly popular substitute for animal protein (Hossain et al., 2010). Chickpeas are also a rich source of minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, potassium, and βcarotene. Compared to other legumes, chickpeas contain higher levels of manganese, zinc, and phosphorus (Wang et al., 2010). Additionally, chickpeas provide Thiamine (0.30 mg/100 g), Riboflavin (0.51 mg/100 g), Biotin (10 µg/100 g), Folic acid (125 µg/100 g), and Nicotinic acid (2.1 mg/100 g). (The Nutritive value of Indian Foods and the Planning Satisfactory Diet, ICMR). Chickpeas are cultivated across India, chickpeas are grown on 10.91 million hectares, producing 130.75 million tonnes (Anonymous, 2021-22). In Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) over an area of 26.60 lakh hectares, yielding 19.88 lakh tonnes. Northern India contributes approximately 90 percent of the chickpea-growing area and 95 percent of the total production. In Madhya Pradesh, chickpeas are widely cultivated, particularly in districts such as Bhopal, Vidisha, Sehore, Khargone, Khandwa, Gwalior, Bhind, Morena, Shivpuri, Guna, Jabalpur, Narsinghpur, Sagar, Raipur, Bilaspur, and Chhindwara. The average yield in M.P. is about 908 kg/ha, which is relatively low. Several factors contribute to this low yield, including the tendency of farmers to grow pulses, an energy-rich crop, on poor and eroded soils, and a lack of attention to plant protection measures against diseases and pests. Chickpeas are susceptible to numerous diseases and insect pests, with significant yield losses often occurring from pre-emergence to crop maturity. Many of these diseases are caused by fungi associated with seeds and present in the soil. Singh et al. (1986) [6] reported that wilt incidence can range from 10 to 100% in various parts of India and 10 to 20% incidence observed in the Vindhyan Plateau's farmers' fields.

Material and Methods

A roving field survey was conducted during the Rabi 2022-23 and 2023-24 season in the chickpea growing three tehsils of Bhopal district to asses wilt disease incidence. The field visits were undertaken during seedling to pod formation stages of the crop. Samples of farmers' fields of chickpea crop exhibiting symptom of wilt were collected from different locations of three tehsils (Huzur, Berasia and Kolar) of Bhopal district of Madhya Pradesh. During survey following observations were recorded, total number of chickpea plants/two rows was counted, of which wilt suspected plants were counted separately to calculate percent wilt incidence. Based on numerical data obtained in respect of total number of chickpea plants and wilted plants per field surveyed, percent wilt incidence was calculated.

Chickpea seeds of different varieties (JG-24, Vijay, Jaki-9218, JG-36, JG-18, JG-52, JG12, JG-315, JG-62 and JG-74) will be collected from JNKVV Jabalpur (MP). The seeds were air dried and kept in paper bags and stored at room temperature. Seeds were placed on a floating polystyrene platform, in such a way that the protruding chickpea radical projected down through a hole in the platform into beaker containing 100 ml of sterilized water. The seeds of different cultivars of chickpea which varied in their resistance were sterilized in 2% hypochlorite solution and germinated on filter paper soaked in sterilized water, after 48 hr. The germinated platform floated on the surface of the water and incubated at 25 ⁰C under 1-2-hrs light dark regime (Haware and Nene 1984) [3] .

After seven days the polystyrene platform and chickpea seedling was removed and the resulting exudates solution filtered through sterilized Nalgene filters (0.45 um) under reduced pressure. The roots from each beaker were weighed so that the exudates from each cultivar can be diluted or concentrated to make exudates equivalent to 1 g root tissue per 10 ml of water. Sterilized root exudates of different cultivars were tested for their effect on mycelia growth. (Hale et al. 2020) [1] Pure culture of F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceris isolates were represented different races/pathotypes transferred to PDA to study the effect of root exudates on the mycelia growth. Fifty ml of root exudates were added to 50 ml of PDA at round 500 C and mixed thoroughly. This was poured in Petri dishes @ 15 ml per plate. PDA without root exudates served as control. Seven-day old culture of F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceris were representing different races grow on PDA used for inoculation. Three plates were kept for each treatment and incubated at 25 ⁰C for 10 days.

Colony diameter was recorded on 5th, 7th and 9th day.

Results and Discussion

Survey of chickpea wilt in Bhopal district: Based on the (Table 1), The average incidence of wilt in the three tehsils surveyed during Rabi 2022-23 and 2023-24 ranged from 11.26 (Kolar) to 16.24 (Berasia) percent. However, it was found that the chickpea crop cultivated in the Berasia tehsil suffered more, with a wilt incidence of 16.24 percent compared to an average wilt incidence of 13.26%. The Huzur tehsil had the second-highest average wilt incidence of 14.55 percent, followed by Kolar (11.80%). In the Kolar tehsil a minimum average wilt incidence of 11.80 percent was found. Similarly, Shrivastava et al. (2021) [7] reported that wilt incidence in chickpeas was generally higher in the Rabi season of 2018-2019 compared to 2019-2020. Their survey across six districts in the Vindhyan Plateau zone revealed that the disease was widespread and consistently present, with moderate to severe levels. The highest average incidence was in Sehore (17.87%), followed by Rajgarh (17.00%) and Bhopal (15.20%) for both years. Overall, the average wilt incidence was greater in 2018-2019 (15.63%) than in 2019-2020 (14.99%). Effect of root exudates of chickpea cultivars on mycelial growth of Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceris Effect of root exudates of ten chickpea cultivars on the growth of F. oxysprum f. sp. ciceris were studied and presented in table 2. In order to study the effect of root exudates on fungal growth of F. oxysprum f. sp. ciceris on PDA medium containing root exudates of all the ten chickpea cultivars along with check was done by measuring the colony diameter after 5th, 7th and 9th days after incubation (DAI)

The data presented in below table revealed that the effect of root exudates of ten chickpea cultivars on the growth of F. oxysprum f. sp. ciceris. The colony diameter ranged from 17 mm to 77.53 mm on 9th DAI. Lowest colony diameter was recorded in the F. oxysprum f. sp. ciceris by the root exudates of the variety JG-12 was 17 mm on 9th DAI followed by JG 315 (20.22 mm), JG-24(26.58 mm), JG-18(28.42 mm), JAKI-9560(30 mm), Vijay (41.2 mm), JG-36 (42.98 mm), JG-52 (47.05 mm), JG-62 (55.10 mm) and JG -74 (58.16 mm) on 9th DAI. Highest colony diameter was recorded in the root exudates by variety JG-74 was 58.16 mm on 9th DAI which was followed by the colony diameter in the root exudates of variety JG-62 was 55.10 mm. Among all the varieties highest per cent growth inhibition found in JG-12 which was 78.07% followed by JG-315(73.92%), JG-24(65.72%), JG-18 (63.34%), JAKI-9560 (61.31%), Vijay (46.86%), JG-36 (44.56%), JG-52 (39.31%), JG-62 (28.93%) and JG -74 (24.98%) on 9th DAI. Similarly, Hale et al. (2020) conducted an experiment at V.N.M.V.V., Parbhani (M.S.) to study the effect of root exudates from eleven chickpea cultivars on spore germination and hyphal growth of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris. The root exudates of the susceptible cultivar JG 62 showed the highest colony diameter, 85.13 mm, followed by the cultivar Vijay, which showed a colony diameter of 50.46 mm.

Conclusion

The study revealed that in Bhopal district the mean incidence of chickpea wilt were found maximum in Berasia tehsil (16.24%), followed by Huzur (14.55%) and Kolar (11.80%) respectively. Present study showed that chickpea wilt is highly distributed in all the surveyed areas of Bhopal district of Madhya Pradesh. The smallest colony diameter was observed with the root exudates of variety JG-12 with 78.07% growth inhibition while the largest colony diameter

Acknowledgement

International Journal of Agriculture and Food Science https://www.agriculturaljournals.com was recorded with the root exudates of JG-74 with 24.98% growth inhibition.

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