Effect of Seed Dressing Chemicals on Improved and Local Variety of Peral Millet Infected with Sclerospora graminicola.

Abstract

Pearl millet is an important staple food the world over. One of the constraints of its production is the downy mildew disease caused by Sclerospora graminicola which is a very destructive disease of pearl millet. The disease is common in places where pearl millet is cultivated for food and fodder and these includes some Asian and African countries. A field experiment was conducted at Minjibir, International Crop Research Institute of Semi-Arid Tropic (ICRISAT) station, Kano state situated within the Sudan savanna of North West Nigeria between longitude 08.66485oN and latitude 12.1459oE at an altitude of 440m to test the effect of seed dressing chemicals on yield and growth of pearl millet infected with Sclerospora graminicola on improved and local variety. The experiment include ten treatment (Apron star, Agrolyser, Apama plus, Boost extra, Dress force, MOP, SSP, All-star, Apron star + Boost extra, and control) and replicated three times in a split plot design. The improved variety is super sosat while the local variety is Jirani. The experiment was investigated during the 2017 rainy season. The result obtained showed that seeds dressed with SSP, Apron star + Boost extra lower the incidence of downy mildew disease caused by Sclerospora graminicola on both Jirani and Super sosat variety. The super sosat variety is more tolerant to disease downy mildew than the Jirani variety. Seed dressing chemicals increased the yield and growth of improved pearl millet variety while there is no significant difference with the local variety compared to the control.