Untitled

Abstract

Research on Trichoderma species for its in vitro efficacy against soil borne fungal plant pathogens have been widely published for more than half a century and in vivo efficacy has also been reported for several species and their strains in their geographical locations of prevalence. However, the efficacy of a particular strain or an isolate of a species across the geographical location is not yet fully explored. This is the reason, why biocontrol agent Trichoderma has not yet achieved its impact in the agricultural production system as compared to commercial synthetic fungicides for control of plant pathogens. The available literature indicated that several environmental factors, soil ecology and geographical location specificity plays an important role in the efficacy of Trichoderma as biocontrol agent in the control of soil borne plant pathogens. Nevertheless, commercial formulation product of different Trichoderma species or unknown species are available as biocontrol agent of plant pathogens around the world, notably to be used in the organic farming system. Though different Trichoderma species are registered for their bio-formulation products in different countries, seldomly the name of a species of Trichoderma and its geographical indication tag are mentioned on the packet of commercial formulation. The geographical indication tag is available for the crop plant varieties/cvs, but not for Trichoderma species and strains; the crop varieties are recommended specifically for the particular geographical region or state or for whole the country based on the research trials, but this phenomenon is not in operation for release and recommendation of biocontrol agent. The Trichoderma species in the commercial formulation may be geographical specific for their biocontrol efficacy as evident in our research. Therefore, In the free trading era and movement of products across the regions, it becomes difficult to know that in the commercial formulation which species of Trichoderma is used as a biocontrol agent, its geographical indication tag and for which geographical area the biocontrol agent is recommended to work efficiently. Some species of Trichoderma are specific and effective for the control of certain soil borne fungal and nematode plant pathogens while other species are not effective for the same. Therefore, it seems to be important to specify the species of Trichoderma and its geographical indication tag on packet of commercial formulation product and the recommended geographical region for its biocontrol efficacy so as to derive the maximum advantage of the biocontrol product and the research carried out in this field.