Unraveling Maize Diseases: Insights into Major Leaf Blights and Damping-Off | InformativeBD

Md. Moshiur Rahman Akonda, Monira Yasmin, and Ismail Hossain, from the different institute of Bangladesh. wrote a Reseach Article about, Unraveling Maize Diseases: Insights into Major Leaf Blights and Damping-Off. Entitled, Study on etiology, incidence and severity of Southern corn leaf blight, curvularia leaf spot, sheath blight and damping off of maize. This research paper published by the International Journal of Biosciences | IJB. an open access scholarly research journal on Biosciences. under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Sciences| INNSpub. an open access multidisciplinary research journal publisher. 

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the incidence and severity of different fungal diseases of maize occurred in the major maize growing regions (Bogra, Gaibandha, Mymensingh and Rangpur) of Bangladesh during January 2007 to March 2008. Incidence and severity of the diseases viz. southern corn leaf blight (Bipolaris maydis), curvularia leaf spot (Curvularia lunata), sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani) and damping off of seedlings (Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp. and Penicillium spp.) were recorded from a hybrid variety Pacific-984 and a high yielding variety Khai Vutta at seedling stage (30 DAS-Days After Sowing), vegetative growth stage (60 DAS) and silking stage (90 DAS) of the plant. The etiology of the diseases was also studied. Considering all growth stages of plant, the comparative analysis revealed that incidence and severity of the diseases varied from one district to another, but almost minimum levels of infection were observed in Rangpur followed by Bogra, Gaibandha and Mymensingh. The results also depicted that southern corn leaf blight and curvularia leaf spot were found at all the growth stages of plants, sheath blight was found at vegetative stage and silking stage, where as damping off symptoms were recorded only at seedling stage of maize plants. As the pathogens have negative influence on plant health as well as yield so, special attention should be given by the growers to minimize the fungal infections by promoting good agricultural practices in the maize growing districts of the country.

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Introduction

Maize (zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereal crops in the world and ranks third next to wheat and rice (Aldrich et al., 1975). In Bangladesh, it has a good potential as a cereal crop due to its low cost of production, wide adaptability and diversified use. There has been continuous increase in the consumption of corn mainly owning to increase in the demand from meat and starch sector. There is growing requirement of maize from poultry sector where it is being used as feed. It is also fractionated by either dry or wet milling into food and industrial ingredients. Starch, the major constituent of the corn kernel, is used in its native form or after chemical or enzymatic modification, in foods and industrial products. Starch is also converted into glucose or fructose for use as food sweetener. Glucose can be fermented into ethanol for beverages or into many other chemicals. Recently, it has been discovered that corn can also be used in the production of biofuel (Deepavali and Nilima, 2013). However, maize kernels have high nutritive value containing 66.2% starch, 11.1% protein, 7.1% oil and 1.5% minerals. Besides, it contains 90mg carotene, 1.8mg niacin, 0.8mg thiamin and 0.1mg riboflavin per 100g grains (Chowdhury and Islam, 1993).

The average yield of corn in the world is 4.31 ton/ha (FAO, 1999). In Bangladesh corn was cultivated in 66,801 ha of land and production was 35,600 ton having the average yield 5.33 ton /ha during the year 2005 (BBS, 2006). Recently, government of Bangladesh has given special emphasis on its extensive cultivation, especially in the char areas where the land remains almost fallow during the winter.

Many factors such as environmental conditions, yield potential, soil fertility, genetics of particular hybrids, and the synergistic action of different diseases and insects all impact yield loss and cannot be evaluated with any precision, especially over a large geographic area (White, 1999). As many as 112 diseases are known to occur on corn in the corn growing countries.

Of all the diseases, more than 70s are seed borne (USDA, 1960). Among the diseases, southern corn leaf blight (Bipolaris maydis), curvularia leaf spot (Curvularia lunata), stalk rot (Zibberella zeae), sheath blight (Rhizoctonia solani), damping off of seedlings (Aspergillus spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp.), bacterial leaf blight (Pseudomonas avenae), bacterial leaf streak (Xanthomonas campestris pv. Zeae) and maize dwarf mosaic of maize are common in Bangladesh. Seasonal yield loss is significantly correlated with disease incidence and severity of maize (Zhang et al., 1999). Though it is a food crop of economic significance so, by knowing the causes of disease and damaging effects of a disease at particular growth stage of plant will provide basic information to the growers to initiate appropriate management strategies on time to minimize the yield loss. In view of above-mentioned facts, the present research has been undertaken to study the etiology of the diseases and to record the incidence and severity of maize diseases at specific growth stages of plants in the existing maize fields of the farmer.

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Article source : Study on etiology,incidence and severity of Southern corn leaf blight, curvularia leaf spot,sheath blight and damping off of maize