Survey for the Incidence of Stem Rot of Groundnut in North Bengal Districts of West Bengal, India

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important edible leguminous oilseed crop.Diseases of groundnut act as the limiting factor to its economic production.Recently, the stem rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii is becoming severe disease of groundnut in India.Crop Losses up to 59 per cent due to stem rot disease have been reported by many researchers.Hence, to get a preliminary an idea regarding the incidence level and pattern of prevalence of the disease in the agro-ecological condition of northern part of West Bengal, fixed plot and roving survey were conducted at different locations during the crop growing season of 2016-17 and 2017-18.The North Bengal part of West Bengal denotes Jalpaiguri Division (Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Kalimpong) and Malda division (Uttar Dinajpur, Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda) together.It also includes parts of Darjeeling Hills.Traditionally, the Ganga River divides West Bengal into South Bengal and North Bengal, divided again into Terai and Dooars regions.The pooled analysis of two years data of survey revealed that disease incidence was ranged from 8.16 to 25.89 % and the Alipuduar district had maximum level of disease incidence ranging from 8.16 to 25.89 % followed by Jalpaiguri district 13.41 to 22.49 %, Coochbehar district 11.46 to 18.81%, Darjeeling district 8.25 to 16.26 %, Uttar Dinajpur district 9.36 to 14.71%, Dakhin Dinajpur district 8.91 to 13.67%,.However, Malda district was noticed with less incidence levels ranging from 8.16 to 12.37 %.This study provided an elementary idea about the percent disease incidence (PDI) as well as paved the path for developing location specific good agricultural practices (GAP).