DETECTION AND EVALUATION OF Cicer arietinum GENOTYPES AGAINST COLLAR ROT UNDER SICK FIELD AND ARTIFICIAL CONDITION

Collar rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii sacc is one of the highly destructive diseases. It can cause up to 90% yield losses depending on the environmental conditions. In the present study, 44 chickpea genotypes were collected from the Indian Institution of Pulse Research (IIPR), Kanpur (UP.) and Rajasthan Agriculture Research Institute (RARI), Durgapur (Raj.), India and screened by artificial inoculation at research field of Plant Pathology, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University. In the present study two diverse strains of Sclerotium rolfsii sacc were selected one was from LPU research farm (Strain-1), and other was from ITCC, culture collection (Strain-2), and the reaction of forty-four chickpea genotypes were observed. L 550 was used as negative check variety. Significant variations in their disease reaction between pot culture and field condition were observed. Disease observations were also recorded at different vegetative (pre-flowering) and reproductive stage (post-flowering). A considerable variation among the genotypes for disease reaction was observed at both stages. Under pot culture, the reaction of genotypes against collar rot varied from resistant to highly susceptible. Four genotypes (JG-13-14-16, KAK-2, CSJ-515, PBG-5) were resistant to both the strain-1 and strain-2 with 0% disease incidence. Based on the result obtained in pot culture and field studies, KWR 108, SADABAHAR, JG-13-14-16, KAK-2, RSG-807, RSG-931, CSJ-515, RSG-945, PBG-5, CSJK-54, GANGOR and ICC 244-23 showed moderate resistance to the two strains of Sclerotium rolfsii sacc under field conditions; whereas, under pot conditions, 13 genotypes showed resistance to all two strains (0% disease incidence). These findings have indicated that some elite genotypes could be employed in the crop breeding and improvement programs.