Successful community-based management of banana wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense Tropical race-4 through ICAR-FUSICONT

Abstract: The profitability of commercial G-9 banana cultivation in the banana growing countries is not only significantly reduced due to serious outbreak of wilt disease caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense Tropical race 4 (Foc TR-4) rather its cultivation is totally stopped at many places. The virulent and polycyclic nature of the pathogen limits the field level success of the control initiatives through chemicals, resistance breeding and biological control. In India, outbreak of Foc TR-4 during 2017 in the districts of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh and Katihar in Bihar attracted intensive research program for the management of the disease to avoid nationwide threat. �ICAR-FUSICONT� a bio-formulation comprising of consortia of effective antagonistic and growth promoting microbes on a patent protected modified CSR-BIO media was developed and validated through participatory community based management in the hotspots of Foc TR-4. The current study aims to assess the efficacy of the bio-formulation in the control of the disease, impact on restoring the yield and increasing the income of the banana growers at hotspot sites. The investigation was carried out by descriptive survey from 2017 to 2018 with both adopters and non-adopters of the technology. Results showed that formation of community based organization and ICAR-FUSICONT bio-formulation application during the critical growth phases of the crop resulted in an overall decrease in disease incidence in both the states of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and Bihar with the adopters. Adopters recorded an average of 6.08 % disease incidence while non- adopters had 45.68 % disease incidence at harvest. An average yield of 25.98 kg/plant with a significantly higher net income of Rs.182949.40/acre was obtained by adopters compared to non-adopters income (Rs. 33514/acre). The study also showed that most of the adopters were from the age group of 30 to 40 years with educational status of above secondary level. The results of this study furthermore indicate that the community enabled technology adoption of ICAR-FUSICONT would be a critical component in the control of the banana Fusarium wilt (Foc TR-4) in the areas of disease epidemic.