Background: Macropropagation is a farmer friendly technology complementing field sucker production. An investigation was conducted to examine the impact of biocontrol-enriched growing media on the corm propagation of red bananas in order to utilize&nbsp;the biopesticide or bionematicide potential in producing disease-free plantlets as well as the plant multiplication potential of soilless substrates. 
 
Methods: Polybags containing sawdust, cocopeat, or a 50:50 mixture of sawdust and cocopeat media, enhanced with varying concentrations of Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal, Bacillus subtilis and Pochonia, were used to plant the decapitated and decorticated suckers. 
 
Result: The growing medium consisting of cocopeat + sawdust (1:1) + VAM (30 g/corm) + Pochonia chlamydosporia (60 g/corm) produced the best results in terms of the number of days taken for first bud emergence (24.11 days), secondary bud emergence (46.34 days), tertiary bud emergence (67.35 days), total number of buds/ corm (9.54), plant height (73.56 cm) and girth of the pseudostem (12.34 cm). The plantlets regenerated from the same growing media showed superior performance for survival percentage, number of leaves/plant, plant height, pseudostem girth, number of roots, plant fresh and dry weight, chlorophyll content (SPAD) and total phenol content at 45 days of hardening. The population of Bacillus subtilis was found maximum (2.4&times;107cfu/g) in the Cocopeat and Sawdust media enriched with Bacillus subtilis (30 g/corm) and Pochonia chlamydosporia (60 g/corm), while the population of Pochonia chlamydosporia (9&times;107&nbsp;cfu/g) and higher root colonizaation (100.00%) was found maximum&nbsp; in the growing media Cocopeat + Sawdust (1:1) + VAM (30 g/corm) + Pochonia chlamydosporia (60 g/corm)&nbsp; at 120 days after planting.

Effect of Enriched Soilless Media on Corm Propagation of Red Banana

<div style="text-align:justify">Effectiveness of three biopesticides viz., Biowilt-X (based on Trichoderma harzianum), Bionem-X (based on Pochonia chlamydosporia) and Biocure-X (based on Bacillus subtilis) were tested against wilt (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri), root-knot (Meloidogyne incognita) and the wilt disease complex (F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceri + M. incognita) of chickpea (cv. BG-256). The biopesticides were developed by involving novel technology patented in USA and India and were applied to seeds (5 g/kg seed) and soil (40 g/microplot) to evaluate their effectiveness against the target diseases under field conditions. The pesticides viz., carbendazim and nemacur were applied @ 1.25 kg a.i./h and 6.0 kg a.i./h as soil application, and 2g/kg seed as seed treatment. Chickpea grown in the plots infested with pathogens singly or concomitantly developed characteristic wilt and root-knot symptoms, and exhibited significant yield decline. Application of biopesticides checked the severity of the diseases and the resulting yield declines. Application of Biowilt-X decreased the wilt incidence by 60% and promoted the yield of chickpea (46%) grown in F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceri infested plots. The biopesticides Bionem-X and Biocure-X were found effective against root-knot disease and suppressed the galling by 20 and 12% and promoted the yield of infected chickpea plants by 28 and 34% in comparison to the control. Application of Biocure-X was found highly effective against the fungus-nematode wilt disease complex; its seed treatment substantially controlled the wilt and root-knot, and increased the yield of concomitantly infected chickpea by 49&deg;C. Biocure-X was found more effective in increasing the nodulation as compared to other treatments. Effect of carbendazim and nemacur was significant (P&lt;0.05) in checking the wilt, root knot and disease complex but were not as effective as biopesticides. The present study has demonstrated that biological management of wilt, root-knot and disease complex can be successfully achieved with the application of the developed biopesticides.</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">Efficacy of newly developed biopesticides for the management of wilt disease complex of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)</div>