Management of yellow rust of wheat in Jammu subtropics

Major wheat growing areas of Jammu sub tropics (Jammu, Samba & Kathua Districts) were surveyed to ascertain the status and distributions of yellow rust of wheat during 2009–10. The disease was reported in all the wheat growing areas of Jammu subtropics with AURPC ranging between 1070.69–1757.05, 705.79–1001.65, 776.5–1146.46 in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts, respectively The studies on role of epidemiological parameters like atmospheric temperature, relative humidity and rainfall showed significantly positive correlation between disease severity and minimum and maximum temperature, whereas, relative humidity exhibited negative correlation. The rainfall of 20.7 mm, minimum and maximum temperature of 9.8 and 19.4^oC accompanied by relative humidity of 84 - 87% were found conducive for disease development. Fungicidal management of the disease revelaled that foliar application of Quadris and Folicur were most effective in reducing the disease severity by 69.60, 71.88, 71.77 and 69.31 per cent and 68.00, 70.00, 63.61 and 65.34 per cent in PBW-343, RSP-561, PBW-550 and Agra Local, respectively, followed by Tilt and Bayleton. Seed treatment with Raxil @ 0.1% also resulted in significant decrease in the disease severity. The foliar application of Quadris showed an increase of 45.83% in yield over susceptible cultivar, Agra local by the of. It was concluded that abiotic factors play an important role in disease development and the timely application of fungicides reduced the disease severity with corresponding increase in yield.