Imogie, A.E. et al. /Int.J.Agr.Sci. & Tech. 1(2) (2021) 33-39 Page 33 of 39 Volume 1, Issue 2, May 2021 Received : 19 November 2020 Accepted : 15 February 2021 Published : 05 May 2021 doi: 10.51483/IJAGST.1.2.2021.33-39 Article Info © 2021 International Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Technology. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Abstract The study into the outbreak of the blast disease in the oil palm plantation in Akamkpa local government of Cross River state was carried out with the aim of identifying the possible sources of contamination of the oil palm seedlings and also the physicochemical parameters of the soil samples. Fungi associated with the blast disease were isolated using the direct plating and bait methods while the physicochemical parameters of the soil were determined using standard methods. The symptoms of the blast disease in the palms begins with rotting of the tips of the roots and then further spreads into the media zone of the cortex resulting in the eventual death of the palm. Fungi isolated from different portion of the affected seedlings, water and soil samples include Pythium, Phytothora, Macrophomina, Aspergillus and Penicillium spp. The results of the soil physical properties of the soil samples showed the particle size analyses of the soils samples to range from 835 gkg1 to 840 gkg1 respectively. The soil texture was sandy loam with an acidic pH ranging from 5.3 to 5.8. The contents of organic matter ranged from 6.10g kg -1 to 14.25 g kg -1 , total nitrogen 1.58 g kg -1 to 2.25 g kg -1 , available phosphorus 5.08 mg kg -1 to 6.10 mg kg -1 and potassium 1.16 cmol kg -1 to 2.18 cmol kg -1 . The result of this study has indicated that the source of water used for the watering of the oil palm nursery serve as the possible source of introduction of pathogenic pathogens to the oil palm seedlings. Keywords: Blast disease, Oil palm, Contamination, Seedlings Physicochemical parameters, Soil samples * Corresponding author: Esiegbuya, O.D. Plant Pathology Division, Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin City. E-mail: esiegbuya@gmail.com, imogie@yahoo.com 2710-3366/© 2021. International Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Technology. All rights reserved. Incidence of blast disease in oil palm plantation located in Akamkpa local government of Cross River State Imogie, A.E. 1 , Esiegbuya, O.D. 2* , Awelewa, E.A. 3 and Ojieabu, A. 4 1 Agronomy Division, Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin City. E-mail: imogie@yahoo.com 2 Plant Pathology Division, Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin City. E-mail: esiegbuya@gmail.com 3 Research and Development, JB Farms Oil Palm Plantation, Cross River State, Nigeria. 4 Plant Pathology Division, Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR), Benin City, Nigeria. 1. Introduction Blast disease is widespread in Africa (Renard, 1976). This disease can sometimes pose a serious challenge in the polybag system for raising oil palm seedlings. The blast disease of the oil palm was first reported and described in 1944, very little was known about its causal organisms. Prior to this time, some investigators thought that the disease was cause by nematodes such as Aphelenchus avenae Bastian, Cephalobüs, Zeldia, Ditylenchus and Acrobeloides spp. (Robertson, 1959a). The disease was later reported in Malaysia when the polybag system for raising oil palm seedlings was introduced (Turner 1965a). Prior to this time, the ground bed nurseries had been the standard method of raising oil palm seedlings for field planting in Nigeria (Aderungboye, 1976). ISSN: 2710-3366 Imogie, A.E. et al. /Int.J.Agr.Sci. & Tech. 1(2) (2021) 33-39 https://doi.org/10.51483/IJA GST.1.2.2021.33-39 International Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Technology Publisher's Home Page: https:/ / www.svedbergopen.com/ Research Paper Open Access SvedbergOpen DISSEM INATION OF KNOW LEDGE