Occurrence of banded leaf and sheath blight of maize in Jharkhand with reference to diversity in Rhizoctonia solani.

Survey during kharif, 2005 and 2006 were carried out to record occurrence of disease and diversity in R. solani among the naturally occurring populations and revealed that banded leaf and sheath blight incited by Rhizoctonia solani, is showing wide spread with the disease severity ranging from 30.30 to 80.46 per cent and gaining the economic importance in t he stat e of Jharkhand. Five isolates from five different locations showed variation in thei r morphologi cal characters such as abundanc e of mycelium, colour and location, distribution, size and density of sclerotia etc. Pathogenicity revealed isolate Hc most aggressive while isolate Jr least aggressive.