<div>Background: Aerial blight (Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn) and Anthracnose/pod blight (Colletotrichum truncatum) are important soybean diseases, affect most of the present varieties with varying intensity, in India. There are also few reports of resistance against both the diseases.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: To identify resistance, a set of 121 diverse soybean genotypes including six susceptible checks i.e. JS 93-05, JS 335, JS 72-280, Punjab 1, RKS 18 and VLS 58 were evaluated under high disease pressure field conditions during 2017, 2018 and 2019. Moreover, assessment of yield losses due to these diseases were also worked out in highly infected plants of susceptible checks. 
 
Result: It was observed that aerial blight (0.0-46.8 per cent) and anthracnose/pod blight (0.0-56.2 per cent) were affected soybean genotypes from R1 to R7 and V3 to R7 stages, respectively. The genotypes responded differently and showed absolute resistance to susceptible reaction. Out of 121 genotypes, only five genotypes i.e. JS 20-57, JSM 222, MACS 1407, PS 1611 and Cat 2126 B were found to be highly resistant against both the diseases. Per cent pod and yield losses were significantly correlated with varying severity of aerial blight (0.966** and 0.995**) and anthracnose/pod blight (0.957** and 0.995**), respectively. However, the highest yield loss of 41.0 and 64.8 per cent were recorded on 55.6 and 75.2 per cent disease index (at 90 days) of aerial blight and anthracnose/pod blight, respectively.</div>

<div>Identification of Sources of Resistance and Yield Loss Assessment for Aerial Blight and Anthracnose/Pod Blight Diseases in Soybean</div>

Background: Tomatoes play a pivotal role in global agriculture fostering economic growth while also significantly enhancing food security. This paper introduces a data-based approach to improve the early detection of fungal infections in tomatoes. 
 
Methods: The study utilises a dataset comprised of 4,362 high-resolution images obtained from Mendeley, showing healthy tomato plants alongside those damaged by leaf mold, early blight and late blight diseases. Deep learning techniques have been applied to develop a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for disease classification based on these images. 
 
Result: The CNN model exhibits an overall accuracy rate of 90.83%, underscoring its efficacy in identifying fungal growth in tomato plants. The study proposes the use of machine learning in the detection and treatment of fungal diseases affecting tomatoes, which consequently leads to increased crop yield and quality preservation. It recommends the development of automated tools for farmers to detect and respond to disease outbreaks, thus improving their agricultural practices. 
&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

Early Detection of Fungal Diseases in Tomatoes using Convolutional Neural Networks

<div>Pulses in India have been considered as the poor man&rsquo;s only source of protein. Among them Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an important food legume which is also known as vegetable meat due to high amount of protein in the grain with better biological value on dry weight basis. Various factors viz., diseases and insect pests are mostly responsible for its low production.&nbsp;Among diseases, web blight caused by Rhizoctonia solani is one of the most important disease of cowpea. The web blight appears every year at varying intensity and causes heavy losses in yield. Web blight disease is most severe at seedling and vegetative stage. The disease is characterized by oval or spindle shaped brown black lesions having length ranging from 0.2-8 cm at soil level near collar region and girdling the basal portion of the stem&nbsp;and lesions developed by basidiospores of Thanatephorus cucumeris which are 2-4 mm in diameter, circular and appear as brown necrotic spots with light brown centre. Cob web like symptoms also noticed hence, the name web blight.</div>

<div>Current Status and Prospect of Web Blight of Cowpea: A Review</div>

<div>Background: In Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh long duration varieties of pigeonpea (160-180 days) is grown during rabi under rainfed conditions. Late or advancement of north east monsoon, prolonged breaks and early cessation of rainfall may have devastating effects on pigeonpea yield in rainfed areas of Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh even if the mean annual rainfall is normal. In this context, there is a need for introduction of suitable super early varieties of pigeonpea which are ideal even under changing climatic situations, with suitable crop geometry to enhance the yields of pigeonpea.&nbsp; 
 
Method: A field experiment was conducted during rabi, 2018-19 and 2019-20 at Agricultural Research Station, Podalakur, Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore andhra Pradesh, to find out the suitable super early variety of pigeonpea and their response to different crop geometries. The present field experiment was laid out in a split plot design with 4 varieties of pigeonpea (V1: ICPL 20338; V2: ICPL 20325; V3: ICPL 11255; V4: LRG 52) as main plot treatments and 3 crop geometries (S1: 30 cm x 15 cm; S2: 45 cm x 15 cm); S3: 60 cm x 15 cm) as subplot treatments and replicated thrice. 
 
Results: Super early variety ICPL- 20325 recorded the highest mean grain yield (1098 kg ha-1) among the four varieties of pigeonpea tested. Among the three crop geometries tested significantly the highest grain yield (930 kg ha-1) was recorded at 45 cm x 15 cm. Super early varieties ICPL- 20325 (1256 kg ha-1), ICPL- 11255 (930 kg ha-1) and ICPL- 20338 (817 kg ha-1) recorded higher mean grain yield at crop geometry of 45 cm x&nbsp;15 cm. LRG-52 (996 kg ha-1) variety recorded higher grain yield at crop geometry of 60 cm x 15 cm.</div>

Response of Super Early Varieties of Pigeonpea to Crop Geometry under Rainfed Conditions

<div>Background: In view of developing early maturing groundnut that fit in high intensity multiple cropping system the present study was taken up to introgress early maturing traits in the well-established high yielding varieties. 
 
Methods: VRI 8, CO 7, ICGV 07222 and VRI 6 were takenas the variety to be improved and as a source for early maturity and male parent in the study viz., VRI 3, Chico, ICGV 91114 and ICGV 93468 were used. A crossing program was designed using these parent materials and selected crosses were forwarded to the next F2 generation and their backcross populations were also generated. The data recorded were subjected to Generation mean analysis and association analysis. 
 
Result: With consideration of early maturity and high pod yield the genotypes F2 of CO 7 &times; Chico and ICGV 07222 &times; Chico and B2 of ICGV 07222 &times; Chico recorded high mean values for the traits. The presence of duplicate epistasis was observed for, days to accumulation of 25 flowers (DTF) and days to maturity. This indicates that, inter-mating the selected segregating generations could result in the accumulation of favourable genes. The trait pod yield per plant exhibited positively significant correlation with days to accumulation of 25 flowers, days to maturity in all the crosses and the trait days to accumulation of 25 flowers is positively correlated to days to maturity. Thus, the trait-days to accumulation of 25 flowers is the major selection factor for early maturity in groundnut.</div>

Development of Early Maturing Varieties in Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

<div>Background: Early leaf spot caused by Cercospora arachidicola Hori. is most destructive disease in all the groundnut growing areas of Rajasthan, under severe infestation it cause 30-50% losses in pod yield. Recently, Central Insecticide Board (CIB), Faridabade banned 27 pesticides including some important fungicides which are extensively used in plant disease management. Therefore, in the present investigation, our main emphasis was to find out some new fungicides for management of early leaf spot disease. 
 
Methods: Ten fungicides (hexaconazole 5% EC, difenconazole 25% EC, propiconazole 25% EC, tebuconazole 25.9% EC, trifloxystrobin 25% + tebuconazole 50% WG, mancozeb 50% WP, chlorothalonil 75% WP, carbendazim 50% WP, carbendazim 12% + mancozeb 63% WP and captan 70% + hexaconazole 5% WP) were evaluated against early leaf spot pathogen (C. arachidicola) both in lab as well as in field condition. The experiment was conducted at ARS, SKRAU, Bikaner during Kharif-2019 on most popular cv. HNG-69 in RBD design with the application of foliar spray of ten different fungicides at different concentrations against early leaf spot disease and compared with an untreated control. 
 
Result: Among all the fungicides used in the present investigation, Tebuconazole 25.9% EC was found most effective in inhibiting the mycelial growth of the pathogen followed by trifloxystrobin 25% + tebuconazole 50% WG. Under field condition, it gave maximum (70.73%) disease control with highest pod yield (31.5 q/ha) and net return (Rs 57,500/ha) when applied as foliar spray at 0.1% concentration followed by trifloxystrobin 25% + tebuconazole 50% WG at 0.2%. These treatments can provide an effective and economical management of early leaf spot disease for groundnut cultivators.</div>

​Management of Early Leaf Spot (Cercospora arachidicola) of Groundnut in Rajasthan

<div style="text-align: justify;">Onion (Allium cepa) is one of the most important crop grown throughout the world. Onion suffers from many diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes and abiotic factors. Among them fungal diseases stemphylium blight is the most serious and devastating disease of onion limiting the quality and quantity of both bulb and seed. The present review is mainly focused on variability associated with Stemphylium vesicarium and its integrated management. Variability studies are important to document the changes occurring in the population and individuals with variability in morphological, cultural and pathogenic characteristics so as to breed the varieties with durable resistance to the stemphylium blight of onion andidentification of source of resistance against the range of virulence present in the pathogen population. Further, management of stemphylium blight of onion through fungicide application is feasible, however, long term usage of fungicides has led to the resistance development in pathogens besides hazardous environmental consequences associated with their use. The most efficient and economical method to mitigate the menace of this disease is therefore, integrated disease management (IDM) approach where other non-chemical ecofriendly management strategies are integrated with chemical methods in order to manage the diseases more efficiently with reduced use of chemicals. Among non-chemical ecofriendly management strategies biological control is gaining interest as an alternative or complement to chemical treatment of the disease. The present review paper deals with distribution, symptomatology, pathogenicity, variability and integrated management.&nbsp;</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Stemphylium Blight of Onion: A Review</div>

<div>Background: Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp] is one of the primary grain legume crops grown in India for its high quality vegetable protein, animal feed and fodder. It is affected by various fungal and viral diseases. Among these, leaf blight caused by Alternaria alternata is one of the most destructive diseases and recently the disease of minor importance becomes major one in Tamil Nadu. Use of resistant cultivar is the most effective, economically viable and eco-friendly tool for combating the plant diseases. The micronutrients play a key role in many physiological and biochemical functions of the plants which influences plant pathogenic interaction. The micronutrients viz., Zn.Mn,Cu and Fe found to have greater impact on reducing the plant disease severity. Developing integrated disease management strategy involving disease resistant variety, micronutrient and fungicide application would be the best sustainable method for controlling the pigeonpea leaf blight. 
 
Methods: Twenty four pigeonpea genotypes along with two local varieties viz., CO5 and CO6 were evaluated in the field for their resistance against Alternaria alternata leaf blight disease, consecutively for three years from 2015-16 to 2017-18 using the disease resistance scale ranging from 0 to 9. Field experiments were also conducted for three consecutive Kharif season from 2015 to 2018 to evaluate the efficacy of the foliar application of different micronutrients and combination fungicide viz., carbendazim 12% + mancozeb 63% on the incidence of leaf blight disease.&nbsp; 
 
Result: A total of 24 pigeonpea genotypes were screened for their resistance against leaf blight under field condition. Among these, four genotypes viz., BDN2, IPA 8F, IPA 15F and MA6 were found resistance and nine genotypes were moderately resistant and remaining 11 genotypes showed susceptible reaction to leaf blight. The results of the field experiment on micronutrient and fungicide application revealed that foliar spraying of MnSO 4 @0.2% on 30 days after sowing and carbendazim 12%+ mancozeb 63%@ 1g / lit on 45 days after sowing recorded the lowest leaf blight incidence of 8.1 PDI (Per cent Disease Index) with the highest disease reduction of 76.9% as against 35 PDI in the untreated control plot. The above treatments also recorded the highest grain yield of 905 kg/ ha as against 703 kg/ in the untreated control.</div>

<div>Management of Alternaria Leaf Blight in Pigeonpea through Host Plant Resistance and Micronutrient Application</div>

Background: As blackgram cultivation is majorly spread in rain fed areas, breeding short duration and high yielding blackgram varieties is of profound importance to tackle terminal moisture stress and reap impressive yields by breaking the yield plateau. Hence, the present study was aimed to identify highly heterotic cross combinations for yield and earliness.&nbsp; 
 
Methods: Six parents along with 15 F1s were evaluated (rabi, 2019) for seed yield and its component traits along with earliness to estimate the magnitude of heterosis.&nbsp; 
 
Result: The cross LBG-752 &times; TBG-104 exhibited heterosis estimates in desirable direction for yield and earliness. The next best crosses were LBG-752 &times; PU-31, TU-40 &times; TBG-104, LBG-752 &times; TU-40 and IPU-2-43 &times; TBG-104. Because of its autogamous genetic architecture and biological constraints in large scale economic hybrid seed production, heterosis could be exploited only by isolating the early maturing and high yielding segregants followed by bi-parental or recurrent selection in early segregating generations and single plant selection in subsequent generations that would result in short duration and high yielding blackgram variety that fits well into different ecological niches.

​Studies on Heterotic Trends in Blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] for Yield and Earliness

<div style="text-align: justify;">The production and productivity of urdbean ranks lower in India as compared to the that of world average due to the biotic and abiotic constraints. Web blight of Urdbean is caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn and is a soil borne pathogen and initial inoculums come mainly from soil splashes which fall on leaves during heavy rains. Respective optimum temperature and relative humidity i.e. 26&ndash;28oC and 90&ndash;100% favours disease development chronically. The pathogen can survive very longer in the absence of a host either as sclerotia or thick walled brown hyphae in plants debris. Currently the disease is prevalent in many countries across the globe. The pathogen is highly variable in terms of its pathogenicity, culture, morphology, biochemical and molecular characteristics. The severity of this disease is directly linked with the population of viable sclerotia in the soil. Yield losses due to this disease vary in between 20-30% depending upon prevailing conditions.</div>