Effect of Indian traditional homa (Agnihotra) in the management of <em>Alternaria solani </em>of potato crop and <em>Alternaria solani</em> and <em>Xanthomonas compestris</em> pv. <em>vesicatoria</em> of tomato under controlled environmental conditions in polyhouse

Abstract

Crop cultivation in controlled environment is significantly increasing all over the world due to erratic climatic conditions and climate change. Under controlled environment, the plant pathogens particularly from seed borne infections, develop very quickly infecting the crop and causes substantial losses. Control of these pathogens and diseases with pesticide application in controlled environment has its own limitations due to persistance of pesticidal residues over a long period owing to its non depletion in the controlled environment. Traditional homa treatment as non-chemical treatment was used to manage the fungal pathogen Alternaria solani in tomato and potato crop and bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria in tomato crop under controlled polyhouse condition. It was observed that homa therapy effectively reduced the incidence of early blight disease of potato and tomato and bacterial blight disease of tomato in polyhouse and it also reduced the environmental pathogenic microflora around 70 per cent. Thus homa therapy can be used as an alternate solution for chemical pesticides in protected cultivation and also be used in integrated pest management.