Soil borne fungi associated with groundnut, pearl millet and sorghum crops in sub zone Hamelmalo, Eritrea

Abstract

Groundnut, pearl millet and sorghum are the common crops grown in five selected villages of sub zone Hamelmalo. Survey was conducted with the objectives of isolation and identification of soil borne fungi of these crops. Fifteen soil samples each of 150 g were collected randomly from the rhizosphere of each crop at the end of the cropping seasons. The mycoflora were isolated by using direct plate method. Results indicated that soil pH range varies from 6 to 8. Minimum pH observed was 6.0 for groundnut soils in Basheri and sorghum soils of Haerbit while maximum pH was recorded for sorghum fields in Hamelmalo area i.e., pH 8. Most of the soil samples characterized as loamy soil with brown colour. Among the total of 339 fungal colonies, 7 different fungal species were observed. The maximum colonies belong to Mucor (69) followed by Aspergillus niger (60), Rhizopus (59), A. flavus (57), Fusarium oxysporum (57), Pythium (20) and Penicillium (19) colonies. In the village Basheri, Mucor has the highest per cent (33.3%) contribution of fungal genera in the soil of sorghum crop and the lowest fungal species i.e., Penicillium and Pythium (3.84%) were observed in the soil where pearl millet was grown. A. flavus in sorghum field, Penicillium and Pythium in groundnut field and Penicillium in pearl millet field were not observed.