Kushal Raj

CCS Haryana Agricultural University | CCS · Department of Plant Pathology

Bacterial blight, incited by Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum (Xcm), is historically one of the most devastating diseases of cotton globally. In India, the initial documentation of the disease dates back to 1918 and it assumed a great magnitude after 1947, primarily triggered by cultivation of tetraploid cotton, as the earlier cultivated indigenou...

Bacterial blight, incited by Xanthomonas citri pv. malvacearum (Xcm), is historically one of the most devastating diseases of cotton globally. In India, the initial documentation of the disease dates back to 1918 and it assumed a great magnitude after 1947, primarily triggered by cultivation of tetraploid cotton, as the earlier cultivated indigenou...

Onion purple blotch is the most indispensable foliar disease of crop and has become a major concern for farmers and research fraternity. An attempt to investigate the role of injury in parasitism by Alternaria porri indicated that disease incidence and severity enhance considerably with injury. Thrips injured plants inoculated with A. porri present...

Onion purple blotch incited by Alternaria porri is a serious bottleneck in sound cultivation of crop. The management of disease through the use of fungicides is matter of concern owing their indispensable impact on environment. A paradigm shift toward use of eco-friendly management tactics involving the use of seed endophytes presents new frontiers...

Background Chickpea is the most important legume crop in India, and its productivity is significantly lowered due to biotic constraints such as wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp . ciceris . Endophytes help plants to thrive better under stress conditions by regulating plant hormones and inducing systemic resistance. The aim of the present stud...

A long term experiment was carried out in MAP Section (GPB), CCS HAU, Hisar from 2005-2019, beginning with evaluation of germplasm identification of superior parental lines, hybridization and selections as per the traditional pedigree method for development of high yielding varieties of Faba bean. In the present investigation, a number of germplasm...

Fusarium wilt incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris is an economically damaging disease of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). Field experiments on epidemiological studies revealed that sowing during second fortnight of November curtailed the disease severity index (22.50 and 20.83% during 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively) whereas, sowing during...

Bottle gourd is an important cucurbitaceous crop. The impact of 14 species from eight fungal genera on bottle gourd seeds was studied through in vitro tests. Bottle gourd seeds were inoculated with each isolate separately and subjected to various germination tests. Maximum germination inhibition was upto 69.3% due to Fusarium proliferatum. Inoculat...

Fusarium wilt incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris causes substantial economic losses in chickpea. To study the effect of mycorrhizal inoculation in combination with different bio-agents, fungicides and botanicals on the Fusarium wilt incidence and yield of chickpea, field trials were conducted during 2019–20 at the research field of CCS Ha...

Background Pearl millet remains prone to many diseases; among them downy mildew caused by Sclerospora graminicola (Sacc.) Schroet is economically more important. The use of endophytic bacteria for management of downy mildew of pearl millet as eco-friendly approach is increasing attention as sustainable alternative to pesticides. The objective of th...

Background: Bottle gourd is a cucurbitaceous vegetable of culinary and medicinal importance cultivated in various tropical and sub-tropical regions of world. This crop is exposed to a wide variety of seed and soil mycoflora, out of which Fusarium proliferatum is utmost important as far as seed germination, viability and seedling vigour are concerne...

Background: Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) belongs to family Apiaceae is generally grown in winter season as a main crop in India. Stem gall of coriander caused by Protomyces macrosporus L. is a serious disease damaging all aerial plant parts. Under favourable ecological conditions, the disease may lead losses to the extent of 100 per cent there...

Cucurbits include the major vegetables group cultivated widely in India during summer and rainy seasons. Out of different cucurbitaceous crops grown, bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) occupies a highest place in human diet but prevalence of various mycoflora acts as a major limiting factor in deteriorating the crop qualitatively as well as quantit...

Background: Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is the most important leguminous crop around the world. Fusarium wilt incited by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris is a major biotic constraint in chickpea production. The present investigation was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of plant extracts, fungicides and bio-agents against Fusarium oxysporum f....

Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn inciting sheath blight is known to cause substantial quantitative and qualitative losses in rice. Sixty six isolates of R. solani representing different agro-ecological regions of Haryana were classified based on their cultural and morphological, pathogenic and genetic traits. R. solani isolates were found highly variable bo...

In India, enormous microorganisms that are present in nature are being exploited for various value-added importance. Among the microbes, fungi are considered as most useful microbes with wider application. To minimize the use of pesticides in agriculture the most alternative source is fungi for development of sustainable crop improvement. Hence, th...

Downy mildew (DM) caused by Sclerospora graminicola is the most calamitous disease of pearl millet. Therefore, for introgression of DM resistance (DMR) in HHB 197 (MH-1302), an elite pearl millet hybrid, a marker-assisted breeding was undertaken by targeting three DMR loci on linkage groups (LGs) 1, 2 and 4. Breeding programme was initiated by cros...

Sclerotinia stem rot incited by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum has become important disease of Indian mustard in recent years in India. Difficult to manage with different methods and lack of genetic resistance against this pathogen prompted us to study on the induction of systemic resistance against the pathogens. In crops, where resistance is lacking, t...

The potential of spent substrate after oyster mushroom cultivation (SMS) for bioethanol production was investigated. Spent mushroom substrate of 1.0 mm mesh size treated with 2% alkali contained 70.11% cellulose, 14.66% hemicellulose and 4.8% residual lignin. Enzymatic hydrolysis of alkali treated spent mushroom substrate at enzyme loading @ 5 FPU/...

Bajra is the fourth most important crop, whose cultivation mainly confines to dry land regions. Gene manipulation using conventional and advanced approaches as well as genetic resource conservation and evaluation is an activity that supports the national crop improvement programme to cope with the biotic and abiotic stresses while maintaining high...

Ethanol production from direct sugarcane and sugarcane juice was studied using different yeast strains. The yeast isolates RY-5, RY-8 and a standard culture of Saccharomyces cerevisiae produced 8–10% ethanol from sugarcane juice and 6.23, 6.40 and 6.64% ethanol by direct sugarcane fermentation after 24h at 30°C. A fermentation period of 24h and ino...

Ethanol production from pearlmillet flour was studied by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Homogenous slurry of pearl millet flour was prepared in water at 30%(w/v) concentration. Liquefaction of pearl millet flour slurry carried out with a-amylase (1.75units/g starch) at 90°C for 30 min followed by saccharification with glucoamylase (16.5GA/unit starch) a...

Flour prepared from potato tubers (Solanum tuberosum) after cooking and drying at 70°C was used for ethanol production. Homogenous slurry of potato flour was prepared in water at solid liquid ratio 1:4. Liquefaction of potato flour slurry with a-amylase (2.05 DUN U/g starch) at 80°C for 30 min followed by saccharification with glucoamylase (20.5 GA...

Efficacy of Captafol 80% WP @ 0.2%, Captan 75% WP @ 0.2%, Carbendazim 50% WP @ 0.1 %, Chlorothalonil 75% WP @ 0.2%, and Mancozeb 75% WP @ 0.2% as seed treatment, pre-inoculation spray and post-inoculation spray was tested for the control of Rhizopus oryzae head rot of sunflower in Haryana. Carbendazim (0.1%) among seed treatment & pre-inoculation a...