Epidemiology of Rust Disease on Pea (Pisum sativum) in Mid Hill Conditions of Himachal Pradesh, India

Pea is third most important pulse crop of the world which is being cultivated all over the globe over the land area of two million hectares. Despite of its being grown in large area, this crop is infected by numerous pathogens including rust disease. This rust is disease of pea is caused by Uromyces viciae fabae affect the pea crop all over the mid-hill conditions of Himachal Pradesh. Therefore, the present study was conducted in mid-hill regions lies in District Mandi of Himachal Pradesh out to know the epidemiology of rust disease on pea (Pisum sativum). A survey of total thirteen study sites was carried out and effects on different plant characteristics like plant height, number of leaves, pods (number of pods and seeds per pod), leaf length and length of pods was evaluated. Results revealed that rust disease on pea crop was observed from seven study areas. Disease symptoms appeared as rust sori of aecia, uredia and telia which poses severe infection on entire plant. Variable degrees of disease severity and incidence of pea rust was observed in different study areas where infection was observed. An increase in disease severity and incidence was observed with the growth of pea crop. The disease severity (DS) was found in the range of 1.4–46.3% whereas, diseases incidence (DI) was observed in the range of 3.3–47.5%. Analysis of results revealed that infected plants showed significant decline in plant height, number of leaves, pods (number of pods and seeds per pod) and leaf length as compare to healthy plants. The plant height of infected plants was observed in the range of 17.8-16.3cm, whereas, number of leaves, pods (number of pods and seeds per pod) and leaf length were observed in the range of 87-65.6, 16-14, 11-7 and 4-3cm respectively. However, no significant difference was recorded in length of pods in infected and healthy plants. It is necessary to use suitable preventive and curative control measures to avoid heavy losses in final yield. Besides the use of chemical pesticides, the use of mycorrhizal fungi now days is proving beneficial to enhance overall growth performance of the plants for sustainable agricultural production