Evaluation of resistance in different cultivars of chickpea against Meloidogyne incognita and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri under field conditions

Among various plant pathogens that causes severe yield losses to chickpea, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. ciceri is the most important soil borne pathogen in this subcontinent; which is managed primarily by planting cultivars with race specific resistance (4). However, coinfection of plants by fungi inducing Fusarium wilt and root – knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita may risk valuable resistance to the interacting fungus and increase disease severity in susceptible cultivars (5). Attempts have been made to screen out resistant chickpea cultivars against M. incognita as well as F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceri (3). However, due to pathogenic variability, degeneration of varieties due to cross pollination and the effect of environmental factors, resistance of cultivars of different pulse crops have been reported to be unstable (6) and continuous screening of new cultivars is always desired. Therefore, present experiment was conducted to evaluate the resistance of 32 cultivars of chickpea against M. incognita – F. oxysporum f. sp. ciceri disease complex under sick field conditions.