Efficacy of bio-agents and organic amendments against Sclerotium rolfsii in chickpea

In search of less toxic and ecofriendly alternative of disease management seed treatment was done with Trichoderma @ 4 gm/kg and soil application of neem cake, mustard cake and karanj cake. The result revealed, under natural condition, that all the organic amendment significantly increased seed germination and reduced collar rot incidence over untreated control. However, among all treatments, seed treatment of bio-agent Trichoderma with Neem cake as soil application was found to be the most effective recording maximum seed germination (93.05%) and minimum total mortality (8.32%) followed by Trichoderma with mustard cake (85.03 & 9.55%) and Trichoderma with karanj cake (80.86 & 11.41%). Under inoculate condition the results revealed that among all treatments, seed treatment of bio-agent Trichoderma and soil application with Neem cake found to be most effective with maximum germination (96.29%) and least total mortality (18.51%), followed by Trichodenna and Mustard cake (92.59%) and mortality per cent (25.92) and Trichodenna with Karanj cake (92~59%) and mortality per cent (25.92).