Revolutionizing garden pea yield: A synergistic strategy with plant extracts, bio-control agents and fungicides for root rot disease management and optimal productivity

Pea, a vegetable crop cultivated in cooler regions globally, holds substantial economic significance in India. Unfortunately, root rot poses a significant challenge, especially during the early stages of plant growth, with Fusarium solani f. sp. pisi identified as the causative agent. To address this issue, a comprehensive study was conducted over two consecutive years, evaluating the efficacy of various plant extracts, bioagents and fungicides, both in field and laboratory settings, to control root rot in pea.

A field experiment was conducted at Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute, Jaipur in the Rabi seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23 aimed to develop a sustainable strategy to gather valuable insights and observations throughout the growing seasons to combat root rot in pea crops, specifically using the susceptible variety Arkel.

Among all fungicides, plant extracts and bio-control agents that demonstrated efficacy in laboratory settings were subsequently evaluated in real-field conditions. In field condition seed treatment with tebuconazole 50%+ trifloxystrobin 25% at 0.1% along with soil application of neem cake at 5 q/ha was found best with minimum disease incidence and maximum pod yield (75.80 q/ha). Among these treatments, neem cake was the most effective in reducing the incidence of root rot in peas compared to the application of mustard cake.