Background: Groundnut is the principal vegetable oil crop in India and about 85 per cent groundnut area under remains rain fed. Stem rot of groundnut is more prevalent in the area and is capable of causing considerable loss in the yield when left unmanaged. Methods: In order to find out an effective method of managing the disease, an integrated approach was adopted by combining the use of bio agents, organic amendments and fungicides alone and in combinations. Result: Seed treatment with tebuconazole @ 1 g kg-1 and with commercial formulation of Trichoderma harzianum @ 5g kg-1 seed along with soil application of neem cake @ 1.3 t ha-1 maintained its superiority over other treatments by recording the least PDI, maximum germination percentage (98.20%), root length (14.62 cm), shoot length (35.54 cm), number of pods per plant (32.57) and pod yield (3920.0 kg ha-1) which may be synergistic effect of organic amendment with bioagent. However, all the sole treatments also managed the disease to some extent but greater control was recorded in combination treatments than alone.

Background: Groundnut is an important edible leguminous oilseed crop and stem rot caused by Sclerotium rolfsii is one of the major soil borne disease affecting groundnut severely in India. The current study aimed to get an understanding regarding the incidence level and pattern of prevalence of the disease in the agro-ecological condition of Andhra Pradesh. Methods: Roving survey was taken up from major groundnut growing areas in Andhra Pradesh during kharif, 2019 and kharif, 2020 in five districts. From each district predominant groundnut growing areas were chosen for assessment of the disease. Five spots of one square meter area in each field were selected randomly and Per cent disease incidence was recorded. Result: From the data it is observed that the stem and pod rot incidence was higher during kharif, 2020 when compared with kharif, 2019. The pooled data indicated that the mean stem rot incidence for the two years ranges from 5.39% to 23.56% with highest mean stem rot incidence in Krishnapuram (v), Kothapatnam (m) of Prakasam dist (23.56%) and lowest in Bandarupalli (v), Yerpedu (m) of Chittoor dist (5.39%). Among different districts highest mean stem rot incidence was recorded in Prakasam dist (18.71%) and lowest was recorded in Chittoor dist (7.11%). The stem rot severity was high in sandy soils with TAG24 variety where groundnut is being grown followed by red sandy loams and least in clay loam soils. The groundnut sole crop recorded high disease incidence when compared with intercrop of red gram. Siginificant positive correlation was recorded between stem rot, pod rot and leaf spot incidence.