Biological control of cercospora musae -An incitant of Sigatoka disease of banana

Sigatoka (Cercospora musae) disease ispresently the most damaging and economically important leaf disease threatening the successful cultivation of banana especially in developing countries like India. A detailed study was carried out to assay the ability of both bacterial and fungal antagonists to inhibit the mycelial growth of C.musae under in vitro conditions. Ten isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens were screened against pathogen, among them isolate Pf-1 was most significant (54.42% inhibition) and isolate Bs-7 was most effective with 42.55% growth inhibition among seven isolates of Bacillus subtilis. Ten isolates each of Trichoderma viride and T. harzianum among the fungal bioagents were assayed in vitro. Isolate Tv-5 of Trichoderma viridewas found to be a potent mycoparasite with a maximum inhibition of about 88.51% followed by Th-3 of T. harzianum with 82.31%.mycelial inhibition. However, there was a significant difference between the fungal and bacterial bioagents on inhibition of mycelial growth, being fungal bioagents proved most promising. There is a tremendous scope to exploit Trichoderma viride (Isolate Tv-5) or Pseudomonas fluorescens (isolate Pf-1)as a component of integrated Sigatoka disease management to substitute one or two fungicidal applications under field conditions.