Evaluation of fungicides and biological agents for the management of mango anthracnose

Mango is an important fruit crop in area and production in Gujarat also, where it is cultivated over an area of about 130.1 thousand hectares with annual production of 911.3 thousand tones with productivity of 7.01 tones/ha. Its plantation has become quite popular in the districts of Valsad, Junagadh, Navsari, Kutch, Surat, Amreli and Bhavnagar because of favourable agro -climate condition. Mango is affected by number of diseases at all the stages of its development right from plant in nursery to the fruit in storage o r transit. Mango is prone to many fungal diseases like Anthracnose, Rhizopus rot, Stem end rot, Penicillum rot, Black mould rot, Mucor rot, Phyllosticta rot, Pestalotiopsis rot, Macrophoma rot and powdery mildew, leading to heavy loss in yield. Among these diseases, anthracnose is the major disease of mango as it occurs at all the growing parts including leaves, twigs, flowers, fruits except root and trunk throughout the year. Anthracnose caused by Glomerella cingulata (Stoneman) Spauld and H Schrenk (anamo rph: Colletotrichum gloeosporioides (Penz.)) appear to be more severe causing devastation of mango fruits during grading, packing, transportation, storage and marketing (Pathak, 1980).