Assessment of resurgence of bacterial blight and its effect on cotton yield in northern Nigeria.

Abstract Cotton production in Nigeria causes fluctuating socio-economic and biotic factors. Bacterial blight induced by Xanthomonas campestris pv malvacearum causes the greatest yield loss annually. A study was therefore carried out to investigate the resurgence of the disease on 10 different cotton genotypes in Dowaya, Kem and Ngurore which are the major cotton areas of Adamawa state of Nigeria under field conditions. Other objectives were to determine the relationship between the different manifestations of bacterial blight and the yield of seed cotton and to identify resistance in the selected genotypes to the disease manifestations. Results revealed the presence of angular leaf spot, vein and boll rot manifestations of the disease in the study areas. The absence of vein blight symptoms in the Kem location did not result in higher yield because the severity of the leaf spot for this location was relatively higher than for the other two locations. Results also revealed that despite the high severity of ...