Survey and Surveillance of Safflower Diseases with Special Reference to Wilt in Maharashtra

A roving survey was conducted during rabi 2005–06 at flowering to seed development stage of crop in major safflower growing areas of Maharashtra state to know the prevalence of safflower diseases, pathogens associated with the diseases and performance of safflower cultivars against wilt on farmers fields. A total of 771 farmers' fields from major safflower growing areas of Western Maharashtra, Marathwada and Vidarbha region were surveyed for incidence of various diseases on safflower and 274 wilt affected plant samples were collected. During survey, maximum incidence of wilt complex (11.64 %) was observed followed by leaf spots (6.18%) and minor diseases (2.14%). On subjecting the wilt affected root samples for isolation, the main pathogen isolated was Fusariutn oxysporutn f.sp. carthami (21.23%) followed by Rhizactonia bataticola (19.59%), Sclerotium rolfsii (13.29%), Phytophthora sp. (12.71%) and Verticillium sp. (12.64%). This indicated that Fusarium oxysporutn f.sp. carthami was the major pathogen associated with safflower wilt complex. The overall performance of different safflower cultivars to wilt on farmers' field indicated that least wilt incidence was recorded by the safflower hybrid NAR1-NH-1 (1.63%) followed by Phule Kusuma (2.30%), Bhima (3.20%) and Sharda (3.74%) whereas local cultivars recorded on an average 16.74% wilt incidence.