Major Chickpea diseases are:-
1.Chickpea Alternaria blight: Alternaria alternata
Symptom:
- The disease occurs during the flowering stage of the crop.
- Leaves are infected most.
- Shedding of lower leaves generally occurs in the infected plant.
- The lesions are seen on leaflets as water soaked, small, circular and purple in colour.
- Infected pods turn blackish in colour.
- Infected seeds get shrivelled.
Management:
- The plants should be planted distantly.
- Avoid excessive vegetative growth.
- Intercrop with linseed.
- Avoid excessive irrigation.
- Use compact varieties.
- Use Mancozeb at the rate of 2.5g/lit or Use Carbendazim at 1g/lit
2.Chickpea Ascochyta blight: Ascochyta rabiei
Symptom:
- All plant parts are affected.
- Symptoms appear on leaves as water soaked lesions.
- Symptoms include smaller circular brown spots on leaves.
- Under favourable conditions, these spots enlarge rapidly and coalesce, blighting the leaves and buds.
- In the case of severe infection, the entire plant dries up suddenly.
- The lesions are also developed on stems and petioles.
- Late infections result in the shrivelled and infected seed.
- The disease is seed-borne in nature.
- Left over debris in the fields serve as a source.
- Wet and warm weather and dense crop canopy are conducive to the spread of the disease
Management:
- Sow disease-free seed.
- Follow rotation crop.
- Intercrop with wheat, barley, mustard
- Seed treatment with Carbendazim @ 1g/kg of seed. or Hot water seed treatment (52 C for 10 min) to lower the infestation.
- Spray the crop with Mancozeb @ 2.5g/lit if noticed during the growth period.
or Spray Wettable sulphur at the rate of 2.3g/lit of water.
3.Botrytis gray mold: Botrytis cineria
Symptom:
- Lack of pod setting is the first indication.
- Under favourable conditions, foliage shows symptoms and plants often die in patches.
- Shedding of flowers and leaves, covered with spore mass can be seen.
- Lesions on the stem are 10-30 mm long and girdle the stem fully.
- Tender branches break off at the point where the gray mold has caused rotting.
- Affected flowers turn into a rotting mass.
- Lesions on the pod are water-soaked and irregular.
- On infected plants, the pods contain either small, shrivelled seeds or no seeds at all.
Management:
- Avoid excessive vegetative growth.
- Intercrop with linseed.
- Avoid excessive irrigation. Use compact varieties.
- Deep summer ploughing Reduce plant density and increase in air passage between the plants.
- Seed treatment with Carbendazim + Thiram (1:1) @ 3g/kg of seed is recommended or Spray the crop with Captan 5 – 6 kg/ha at 15 days interval./Spray of Carbendazim @ 1.5g/lit of water is recommended./Spray Mancozeb @3 g/lit of water.
4.Chickpea Collar rot: Sclerotium rolfsii
Symptom:
- It comes in the early stages i.e up to six weeks from sowing.
- Drying plants whose foliage turns slightly yellow before death, scattered in the field is an indication of the disease.
- Seedling becomes chlorotic.
- The joint of stem & root turns soft slightly contracts and begins to decay.
- Infected parts turn brown white.
- Black dots, like mustard in shape known as sclerotia are seen appearing on the white infected plant parts
Management:
- Deep ploughing in summer.
- Avoid high moisture at the sowing time.
- Seedlings should be protected from excessive moisture.
- Destroy the residues of last crop and weed before sowing and after harvest.
- All undecomposed matter should be removed from the field before land preparation.
- Treat the seeds with a mixture of Carbendazim 1g per kg of seed.
5.Chickpea Dry root rot: Rhizoctonia bataticola/Macrophomina phaseolina
Symptom:
- The disease appears from flowering to the podding stage as scattered dried plants.
- The leaves and stem become straw coloured.
- Affected plants wither and spread across the entire field.
- The roots of infected plants become brittle and dry.
Management:
- Deep ploughing in summer
- Grow cultivars resistant to dry root rot.
- Drought should be avoided.
- Sowing should always be done on the recommended time.
- Germinating and young seedlings should be saved from high temperatures.
- Seed treatment with T. viride @4g/kg or P. fluorescens @ 10g/ kg of seed or Carbendazim or Thiram 2g/kg of seed.
- Spot drenching with Carbendazim 1g/lit or P. fluorescens / T. viride 2.5 kg/ha with 50 kg FYM.
6.Chickpea wilt: Fusarium oxysporum f.sp.ciceri
Symptom:
- The disease can affect the crop at any stage.
- The field symptoms of wilt are dead seedlings or adult plants, usually in patches.
- At seedling stage, 3-5 weeks after sowing, whole seedlings collapse and lie flat on the ground with dull green leaves and shrunken stem.
- Dark brown or dark discoloration of the internal stem tissues is visible.
- At adult stage, dropping of petioles, rachis and leaflets and finally, entire plant occurs.
Management:
- Deep summer ploughing
- Follow crop rotation measures continuously.
- Always use disease free seeds.
- Avoid sowing when temperatures are high.
- Follow 6-year crop rotations with sorghum
- Apply FYM 10-15 cart load/ha.
- Seed treatment with T. viride @4g/kg or P. fluorescens @ 10g/ kg of seed or Carbendazim or Thiram 2g/kg of seed.
- Spot drenching with Carbendazim 1g/lit or P. fluorescens / T. viride 2.5 kg/ha with 50 kg FYM.
- Seed treatment with Carbendazim at the rate of 1g/kg of seed /
- Seed treatment with Thiram + Carbandizm @ 1g+2g per kg of seed
7.Chickpea Powdery mildew: Oidiopsis taurica
Symptom:
- Crop plants of all the age group are affected.
- With the onset of the disease white powdery mass appear on the leaves.
- Small patches of white powder coating initially develop on both surfaces of older leaves.
- Affected leaves turn purple and then die.
- When infection is severe, stems, young leaves, and pods are also covered with the powdery coating
Management:
- Field and crop sanitation.
- Dithane M-45 or Carbendazim at 2.5 g/lit should be sprayed.
Source-
- TamilNadu Agritech Portal
