Understanding the Spread and Impact of Stemphylium Leaf Blight in Onion Crops: An Epidemiological Study
Understanding the Spread and Impact of Stemphylium Leaf Blight in Onion Crops: An Epidemiological Study
Muhammad Ahmad1, Safdar Ali1*, Amer Habib1, Muhammad Usman Ghani2,3, Humaira Kalsoom4, Yasir Iftikhar5 and Muhammad Ahmad Zeshan5*
ABSTRACT
Onion (Allium cepa L.) is an important vegetable crop commonly cultivated throughout Pakistan. It is a good source of vitamins B and C, phosphorus, and potassium. The production of onion is decreasing due to different abiotic and biotic factors. Among the biotic factors, Stemphylium leaf blight caused by Stemphylium vesicarium is one of the most devastating diseases of onion that prevail worldwide and causes a huge economic loss. In present study, different varieties were screened against the Stemphylium leaf blight disease, meteorological variables (temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind speed) were studied in relation to disease development and different chemicals were tested for disease control. The varieties sown in randomized complete block design (RCBD) for screening purpose and were categorized by using disease rating scale. The recorded data was statistically analyzed using ANOVA and the LSD value (p=0.05) was determined. In varieties screening test, among the 7 varieties selected, none was immune response against Stemphylium disease. Varieties like Hike showed resistant response, HON-304E moderately resistant, Kaseer and Rosabella showed a moderatly susceptible response, Sultan and Tarzan showed a susceptible response, and Phulkara (Check) showed highly susceptible response in disease development and spread. Meteorological variables showed that disease severity negatively correlated with temperature. Rainfall enhanced disease development, sunlight duration upto 11 hours also significantly positively correlated with the severity of the disease while relative humidity between 65-85% favored disease severity.
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