SUSTAINABLE INTEGRATED APPROACH FOR MANAGEMENT OF EARLY BLIGHT AND THEIR EFFECT ON CROP GROWTH PARAMETERS IN TOMATO

Tomato [(Solanum lycopersicumL.) Krust] also known as “Love apple” ranked thirds among vegetables next to potato and onion in terms of production but ranks first among canned vegetables. The crop is cultivated across all countries in the field as well as in protected conditions. The crop is attacked by number of diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, virus, mycoplasma, nematodes etc. and causeshudge amount of crop loss across the world. Among the diseases, early blight also known as target spot disease incited by Alternariasolani (Ellis and Martin) Jones and Grout, is one of the world’s most catastrophic disease of tomato (Abada et al., 2008). The disease causes loss from 50 to 86 percent in fruit yield in different parts of the country. (Mathur and Shekhawat, 1986, Datar and Mayee, 1981). The pathogen survive for a long time in the diseased plant parts, soil and on alternative/ collateral hosts in the absence of main host, determine the wide ability of the pathogen to perpetuate (Moore and Thomas, 1942; Basu, 1971 and Rands, 1917a). The management of disease can be done through the cultural practices (Rashmi Tewariet al., 2012), biological control (Kokalis-Burelle, 2002), chemical measures (Nguyen Khanh et al., 2013, Sahu, et al., 2013.) and use of resistance variety (Biswas et al., 2015). Cultural practice like field sanitation, deep summer ploughing, soil solarisation, soil amendments and crop rotation etc. can minimize the possibility of disease but cannot completely control the disease in standing crops. Another alternative method of disease management strategy is biological control. In this context, Trichoderma harzianum, Trichoderma viride, Chaetomiumglobosum, Gliocladiumvirens etc. have been exploited for management of diseases but biological control alone cannot manage the disease completely because of little fluctuation in temperature, pH, moisture, etc. largely affects the efficacy of bio-agent. The use of resistance variety is another important method which is reliable and cheep for management of plant disease but due to development of new races of pathogen, the resistance variety becomes susceptible one. Hence, the use of chemicals is the last and only method for plant disease management. It is also so effective in control of disease but man started using it indiscriminately. Excessive use of chemicals has caused soil, air, surface and ground water pollution besides effecting crop produce. The chemicals have entered our food chain also. Other detrimental effects of excessive use of chemicals are development of pesticide resistance strain in pathogen contamination of food by toxic residues, resurgenceof pest and detrimental effect on non target organism and also cost of production. Under these circumstances, a sound disease management strategy is the need of the day to provide long lasting protection in an ecofriendly manner to obtain eco-friendly safe and a sustainable agriculture. The successful integrated approach for management of diseases have found in tomatoagainst Fusarium wilt (Raviendra et al., 2015), in rice against brown leaf spot (Biswas et al., 2008, Kumawat, et al., 2010), in wheat against spot blotch (Umashanker, 2014). Therefore, the study was undertaken in the present investigation as sustainable integrated approach for management of early blight and their ABSTRACT Integrated approach on disease severity and growth parameter of tomato revealed that minimum disease severity with 8.56% was found in case of soil application of FYM + seedling treatment with bio formulation of T. harzianum + spray of Mancozebfollowed by soil application of FYM + seedling deep in Mancozeb + spray of Mancozeb (08.32%) against 95.50% in case of control. Soil application with FYM+ seedling treatment with bio formulation of T. harzianum + spray of Mancozeb also stimulate shoot length of tomato, representing the value15.36, 17.20, 22.46, 26.93 and 31.43 cm against 10.10, 12.06, 17.06, 21.46 and 26.40 cm in case of control at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30 days age of plant commences after 10 days of trans planting.The fresh and dry shoot and root weight was also found maximum with 25.3 g & 7.27gm and 22.00gm & 4.25gm respectively in treatment T8where treatment was given as soil application of FYM + seedling deep in T. harzianum formulation + spray with mancozed.Width of root zone was maximum found in case of soil application of FYM + seedling treatment with bio formulation of T. harzianum + spray of Mancozeb with 22.66cm. Thus, the finding may be concluded thatsoil application of FYM + seedling treated with bio formulation of T. harzianum + spray of Mancozeb not only reduced disease severity but also stimulate plant growth parameters.