Pulses Diseases “Important limiting factor in yield’’ and their Managements

Abstract

Legume crops are very important group of plants that belong to Fabaceae or leguminaceae family and are rich in different essential amino acids. These legumes prove to be the cheapest and most easily accessible source of required proteins. Humans need proper amount of proteins and essential amino acids that are crucial for the proper functioning of the body. In developed countries a large number of diverse diets including meat, fish, protein, drinks and food supplements are readily available but the developing countries having very small income per capita cannot afford all of these commodities. They fulfill their nutritional value by using legume crops. But in developing countries pulses face a number of biotic challenges. They have low production due to less improved varieties. Major damage to the pulse crops is due to the range of bacterial, fungal and viral diseases that drastically reduce the crop production per unit area. Major diseases of pulse crops include chickpea (Blight, Fusarium wilt, root rot), Green and Black gram (Leaf crinckle virus, Mung bean yellow mosaic virus, Mungbean phyllody disease, Cercospora leaf spot, Powdery Mildew), lentil (Ascochyta Blight, Stemphylium Blight, Anthracnose, Botrytis grey mold, Lentil Rust) and soya bean (Charcoal rot, White mold, Louisiana, Root rot, Septoria glycines, Sclerotium rolfsii, Black root rot). These diseases can be controlled by many physical as well as biological methods that have low cost of production and safe to environment. The detailed elaboration of major pulse diseases and their effective control methods have been summarized in this review paper.