Status of post harvest diseases affecting wheat production in Punjab

Wheat is the staple food and leading source of calories and plant-derived protein in the human diet. Decreasing availability of suitable farmland, climate change, and a variety of unpredictable abiotic and biotic stresses continually pose threats to wheat production locally and globally. Among the biotic stresses, fungal diseases are of major concern and are responsible for the quantitative and qualitative losses. These fungal diseases affect the wheat crop either at the field (pre-harvest or field diseases) or after the harvest (post-harvest). Among the post-harvest diseases; Karnal bunt and black point are two major diseases of wheat and are leading to huge quantitative losses in Punjab. Therefore, it is imperative to record the incidence of post-harvest disease in wheat. For, this the wheat grain samples were collected from different grain markets located within Punjab state during 2016–17 to 2020–21. These samples were analyzed for Karnal bunt, black point and ear cockle nematode. The data revealed that the infection per cent of Karnal bunt and Black point ranged from 0.10% (2016–17) to 0.59% (2017–18) and 0.11% (2020–21) to 0.52% (2016–17), respectively. Incidence of Karnal bunt was highest in the year 2017–18 followed by 2020–21 and 2018–19 whereas the incidence of the black point was highest in the year 2016–17 followed by 2018–19 and 2017–18, respectively. The district-wise distribution of average KB infection from 20162021 revealed the highest KB incidence in Amritsar and the least in Fazilka. While black point infection was more in Mohali and least in Kapurthala. None of the samples reported ear cockle nematode. The data analyzed can help manage post-harvest diseases of wheat at various levels by implementing proper management strategies planned out based on incidence patterns