Isolation and identification of fungicidal compatible antagonist against Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris inciting wilt of chickpea.

The pathogen isolated from wilt infected chickpea plant was purified and identified as Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris against which five commonly used fungicides viz., hexaconazole (2000 ppm), copper oxychloride (2500 ppm), tebuconazole (2000 ppm), propiconazole (1000 ppm) and mancozeb (2000 ppm) were evaluated for its efficacy using poisoned food technique. Results showed that tebuconazole at 2000 ppm has shown maximum inhibition of 98.73% and mancozeb at 2000 ppm exhibited least inhibition of 82.27%. A total of 35 antagonistic microflora (11 fungi and 24 bacteria) were isolated from rhizospehere and roots of healthy chickpea. Among 11 fungal isolates CPF-1was found most effective with 88.60 percent of inhibition and among the 24 bacterial isolates, CPB-10 showed 87.34 percent inhibition of mycelia growth of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceris. The Native potential biocontrol agents (viz., CPF-1, and CPB-10) were tested for their compatibility with the fungicides viz., hexaconazole, copper oxychloride, tebuconazole, propiconazole and mancozeb. With CPF-1 mancozeb was found to be highest compatible (38.56%) and propiconazole (0.00%) was found to be least compatible. In case of CPB-10 propiconazole was found to be highest compatible (82.80%) and the least compatibility was recorded in case of copper oxychloride (31.72%).