On-farm management of leaf curl disease in chilli under arid farming system

Author: Arun Kumar

Received 12 August 2005, accepted 27 November 2005.

Abstract

In order to assess efficacy of a bio-management strategy for leaf curl disease (LCD) of chilli a 2- year “on-farm” experiment was conducted in farmers’ fields of Narwa and Manai villages in Jodhpur district in western Rajasthan. Chilli seeds were treated with raw cow’s milk (RCM) for 24 hours in 1:1 ratio (i.e. RCM diluted to 50% by adding water) at the room temperature (30±2°C) and Trichoderma viride (6 g kg^-1 seed) and T. viride (10 g m^-2 ) in nursery soil followed by dipping of nursery-raised saplings in RCM (15%) for 20 minutes before transplantation. After 20- days of transplanting the plants were sprayed with RCM (15%) for four times at 15 days interval. The farmers’ practice (FP) was treated as control. Treatment of bio-control agents was found superior over FP in all the replications providing about 17 to 65% protection over FP. Yield attributes like plant height, root length, number of branches plant^-1, number of fruits plant^-1 , fruit size, fruit weight and fruit yield plot^-1 showed an increase when compared to FP. Besides reduced incidence of LCD and yield attributes, the net monitory return was more (Rs. 8849.47 ha^-1 ) in the treatment of bio-agents (RCM and T. viride) in comparison to the FP with benefit: cost (B: C) ratio of 1.68: 1.31 in the treatment and FP, respectively.