Occurrence of Karnal bunt and black point disease of wheat in northern part of Haryana

Abstract

Karnal bunt and black point are major issues in Haryana's seed production programmes, reducing the quality of wheat seed. During the rabi season of 2021-22, a survey was conducted to determine the status of Karnal bunt and black point in major wheat growing regions covering 11 districts of northern Haryana, viz., Hisar, Yamunanagar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Ambala, Jind, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat, and Sonipat. A total of 849 wheat grain/seed samples were collected from 49 grain markets and seed producers as part of the survey. The results revealed that range of Karnal bunt and black point infection was between 0.05–0.40 and 0.05-2.25 per cent respectively in these districts which was exceeding the permissible limit of Indian Minimum Seed Certification Standards (0.25%) for quality wheat seed production. For Karnal bunt, the infected samples were 281 (33.09%) and rejected samples were 4 (0.47%) having infection more than 0.25 per cent. While the infected samples for black point were 740 (87.16%). The maximum average infection of Karnal bunt was found in Karnal (0.413%), Hisar (0.278%) and Kurukshetra (0.273%) and the minimum was recorded in Sirsa (0.012%), Ambala (0.077%) and Fatehabad (0.104%). Maximum average infection of black point was found in Sonipat (0.218%) followed by Fatehabad (0.189%) and lowest was found in Ambala (0.042%) followed by Kurukshetra (0.082%).