Current Health Status of Potato Crop in different Altitude Regions of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, India

Indian cold arid region of Ladakh is one of the highest elevated inhabited places in the world, due to harsh environmental situation leads to low yield potential of crops and high risk of pest and pathogens which does not allow crop diversity. Total 138 fields were surveyed for assessment of disease severity, and incidence of various diseases of potato in Ladakh during two cropping seasons of 2016–2017. On the basis of visual symptoms, early blight, late blight, bacterial wilting and ring rot were found the most common prevalent diseases and leaf roll virus was uncommon except Hanley during the survey. A lot of variations were found in the percentage of diseases incidence and severity in different villages of Ladakh at different levels of altitude and humidity. Potential plant fungal pathogens Alternaria spp., Cochliobolus spp., Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., Curvularia spp., and Phytophthora spp. were also identified on the basis of morphological characteristics. This study might be helpful for sound management strategies and evaluate the impact of climate changes on disease development in highly elevated regions of Ladakh.

Total 138 potato fields were surveyed in Ladakh region at different altitude and atmospheric humidity levels for diseases infestation, disease incidence and disease severity in which prevalence of early blight, late blight, chlorosis and wilting disease were encountered.

It revealed that diseases infestation, diseases incidence and diseases severity were varied with place to place and our findings indicated that necessity of control measure against the potato diseases.