Occurrence and Management of Blast and Leaf Blight in Browntop Millet [Brachiaria ramosa (L.) Stapf]

Brown top millet is an underutilized millet crop and grown in Southern Peninsular region of India. Blast as well as leaf blight diseases are frequently noticed in Browntop millet. A study was carried to find out the seasonal occurrence and management of major diseases of the crop at Centre of Excellence in Millets, Athiyandal during 2022-23 and 2023-24. The crop was sown during Second week of July of both years and the blast symptom noticed from 10 days after sowing (DAS) and shows increasing trend upto 40 DAS and later shows decreasing trend till the maturity of the crop. However, the leaf blight noticed from 20 DAS and reached maximum level at 60 DAS in both years. Field experiments were conducted to study the effect of biocontrol agents and fungicides on incidence of blast as well as leaf blight in browntop millet. The results show significant variation observed between the treatments on the disease incidences in both the years. Seed treatment with B. subtilis @10g/kg of seed +Foliar spray of Azoxystrobin 23% SC @ 1ml/l at 20 and 40 DASrecorded the lower incidence of blast as well as leaf blight disease incidence and produced more grain yield when compared to other treatments.