Sugar Tech (2009) 11(4) : 381-386 RESEARCH ARTICLE Biological control of sugarcane smut (Sporisorium scitamineum) through botanicals and Trichoderma viride Ram Ji Lal · O.K. Sinha · Sanjay Bhatnagar · Sunita Lal · S.K. Awasthi Received: 11 April, 2009; Revised: 2 August, 2009; Accepted: 17 September, 2009 1 3 Abstract Culmicolus smut (Sporisorium scitamineum Meike), the sett borne pathogen causes considerable loss to sugarcane productivity especially to ratoon crop. Use of fungicides may cause environmental hazards besides residual problem. Therefore, twenty five plant species and Trichoderma viride was evaluated in vitro against smut pathogen (Sporisorium scitamineum). Out of twenty five plant species, leaf extracts (10%) of Calendula officinalis, Solanum nigrum and culture filtrate (5%) T. viride (bioagent) inhibited mycelial growth and teliospore germination of S. scitemineum. In plant crop, smut incidence was 2.07% in dipping of infected setts in leaf extract of S. nigrum before planting, while in remaining treatments it ranged between 3.38 to 7.28% as against 11.3% in control. In ratoon crop, the smut incidence was 5.38% in the same treatment, while in rest of the treatments it ranged between 6.85 to 9.94 per cent as against 15.3% in control. However, sett treatment with T. viride culture filtrate (5.0%) was superior among all the treatments as it improved germination (6.2%), millable canes (27.33%) and cane cane yield (38.18%) in plant crop and sprouting of clumps (12.57%), millable canes (51.46%) and yield (48.75%) in ratoon crop, respectively. Keywords Sugarcane, botanicals, bioagent, smut (Sporisorium), management, yield Culmicolus smut (Sporisorium scitamineum), (Piepenbring et al., 2002) the sett borne pathogen causes considerable loss to sugarcane productivity especially to ratoon crop. In the past, several superior varieties/genotypes have been phased out of cultivation due to this disease in India (Agnihotri, 1990; Sinha, 2002). Although a number of fungicides have been found effective against smut (Agnihotri and Sinha, 1996; Vijaya, 2000; Wada et al., 1999; Singh, 1988) but the formidable rind of setts, fibrous nature of nodes, presence of water in setts besides deep seated buds in stubbles (ratoon) do not allow the fungicides to reach to site of infection to the desired concentration sufficient to manage the pathogen. The most eco-friendly means to contain the pathogen is through the use of resistant varieties/genotypes, botanicals / botanical derivatives and bioagent(s). In vitro, several botanicals have been found effective in inhibiting the mycelial growth of the pathogen (Lal et al., 2002). Sinha and Singh (1983) reported that culture filtrate of Fusarium sp. completely inhibited the germination of teleiospores of S. scitamineum. They also found that teliospores present in contact with fusarial growth showed very little germination. In histopathological studies they confirmed that although Fusarium was antagonistic to smut pathogen but there was no evidence of penetration of mycelium into the teliospores of S. scitamineum. Fungal bioagents, like Trichoderma, Aspergilus flavus, A. niger, Penicillium spp. etc., have been found antagonistic to S. scitamineum by various workers (Martinez et al., 1998; Miranda et al., 1996 and Vaishnav et al., 1992). However, the information on use of botanicals and bioagent(s) for the management of the disease under field conditions is entirely lacking. Therefore, in the present study, Ram Ji Lal (  ) · O.K. Sinha · Sanjay Bhatnagar · Sunita Lal · S.K. Awasthi Division of Crop Protection, Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow-226 002 (U.P.), India email: ramjilal_iisr@rediffmail.com