Journal of Agronomy and Field Innovations

Background: The tuber crop called Solanum tuberosum L., popularly termed potato, ranks fourth among the world's most valuable food crops after rice, wheat, and maize with the annual production of around 330 million tons. Potato is food for one billion people around the world due to its nutritional value and richness in carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Rhizoctonia solani Kühn is a destructive agricultural pathogen that affects potato productivity by means of causing black scurf on tubers and stem canker on underground stems.
Objectives: The main goal of this study is the evaluation of the integrated disease management strategy that consists of the use of Trichoderma viride for biological control, organic soil amendments, and biofumigation with the help of cruciferous residues in order to manage the disease caused by Rhizoctonia solani in sustainable way. The specific goals include: (i) to evaluate the efficiency of the biological agent known as T. viride to get rid of Rhizoctonia solani; (ii) to find out how effective farmyard manure and vermicompost can be in the terms of reducing diseases through improving the microbial composition of the soil; (iii) to establish the efficiency of biofumigation with mustard residues; (iv) to measure the results of combined treatments on the growth of plants, presence of diseases, and tuber yield; and (v) to find changes in the properties of soil related to the sustainable disease management.
Materials and Methods: An experiment in the field was carried out under temperate climatic conditions by means of Randomized Complete Block Design having three replications. The clay-loam soil (pH 6.2; 2.1% organic carbon) was inoculated with R. solani (10⁶ CFU g⁻¹ soil). Potato variety Kufri Bahar, which is susceptible to R. solani, was taken as a test crop. The following treatments were undertaken: Untreated control, T. viride (10⁷ CFU mL⁻¹), farmyard manure (20 t ha⁻¹), vermicompost (10 t ha⁻¹), mustard residue biofumigation, T. viride + farmyard manure, T. viride + vermicompost, T. viride + mustard residue and a combination of all the three treatments. Data on disease incidence, disease severity, plant growth, soil biological properties, tuber yield and quality parameters were collected at regular intervals and during harvest.
Results: The utilization of T. viride, organic amendments, and biofumigation together resulted in the lowest disease level, which was reduced by 78.5% as against the untreated control. The disease incidence decreased from 86.0% in the control to 18.6% with integrated treatment. The height of the plants increased by 34.2% and tuber yield from 18.2 to 31.8 t ha⁻¹, which shows an increase of 74.7%. The microbial biomass carbon in the soils increased by 156% along with the increase in the dehydrogenase and phosphatase enzyme activities. The black scurf severity was decreased from 61.4% to 8.9%, thus increasing the percentage of marketable tubers from 42% to 89%.
Conclusion: The integrated application of T. viride, organic amendments and mustard residue biofumigation is effective and environmentally sustainable approach for the management of R. solani in potato. Integrated use of biological control, biofumigation and soil health management greatly improved disease suppression, plant growth, tuber yield and soil biological activity while reducing reliance on synthetic fungicides. This integration provides a practical approach to achieve sustainable potato production by enhancing crop productivity, improving soil quality, reducing environmental impact, and ensuring long-term agricultural sustainability.