Eco-friendly sustainable methods for mitigating the charcoal rot disease of sesame in Eastern India, using both in-vitro and in-vivo techniques

Biotic stresses like fungal diseases are key global threat to the crops especially oilseeds. Macrophomina phaseolina is the causal agent of charcoal rot (stem and root rot/Macrophomina stem rot) disease of sesame, causing significant yield losses worldwide. Chemical fungicides are the primary control measures in India but, large scale application of chemical fungicide leads to the adverse environmental effect of entry into the food chain. To discourse the above problem our study encompasses use of bio-control agents, botanicals and organic manures as desirable eco-friendly methods for controlling this disease, in local scale. In the present study, seven bio-control agents e.g. Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma viride, Trichoderma asperellum, Trichoderma virens, Trichoderma fasciculatum, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas flourescens and seven botanicals e.g. Azadirachta indica, Allium sativum, Datura stramonium, Zingiber officinale, Bougainvillea glabra, Curcuma longa, Eucalyptus deglupta were evaluated in vitro against M. phaseolina to evaluate its response. Field experiments were conducted during summer season in two consecutive years i.e. 2022 and 2023 at Western Undulating Zone of India to assess the combined impact of best bio-control agent along with organic manure in-vivo. T. viride and A. sativum found to be the best antagonist in-vitro among the bio-control agents and botanicals respectively. The integrated management approach comprising the seed treatment with T. viride @ 4 g/kg + P. fluorescens @ 10 g/kg + soil application of P. fluorescens @ 2.5 kg/ha + T. viride 2.5 kg/ha supplemented in 100 kg of farm yard manure+ neem cake @ 250 kg/ha effectively decreased the incidence of stem rot which showed the least incidence of disease (6.2 and 5.6%) having maximum production of 916 and 970 kg/ha during summer of 2022 and 2023 respectively. By virtue of this study, the researchers may proceed one step ahead to provide an ecofriendly, efficient and bio-protective tool to combat the adverse effect of use of chemical fungicides in controlling the Macrophomina Stem Rot (charcoal rot) in sesame.