Occurrence of Damping Off of Chili caused by Pythium spp. in the Pothwar Region of Pakistan

The per acre yield of chili in Pakistan is quite low as compared to large producers of this vegetable in the world and can be attributed to an assortment of factors both biotic as well as abiotic. Among biotic factors, chili is susceptible to damping off caused by Pythium spp. and causes lots of damage in Pakistan. There is scantly information on the incidence and severity of Pythium associated with chili. Therefore, the current studies were carried out to determine the incidence and severity of Pythium in the Pothwar region of Pakistan. An overall incidence of 14.08% of Pythium damping off was recorded on chili in Pothwar. Attock showed the maximum incidence of 19.86% followed by Rawalpindi and Chakwal districts having 16.22% and 10.22% disease incidences respectively. Jhelum had the minimum disease incidence of 10.05%. Disease severity was the maximum in district Attock (11.03%) followed by Rawalpindi (9.11%), and was the minimum in Chakwal (5.42%) followed by Jhelum (5.67%). The finding of these studies will be helpful for the farmers in designing control strategies for this pathogen accordingly.