Response of Sunflower under Charcoal Rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) Stress Conditions

Charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) covered a wide host range and is responsible for causing losses on more than 500 cultivated and wild plant species. So far in Pakistan it has been reported to cause disease on 67 economic hosts including field crops, pulses, flowers and vegetable. It was first reported in 1982 from sunflower field in Pakistan. The fungus is reported to be soil, seed and stubble borne. Twenty four (24) sunflower genotypes were analyzed under charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) stress conditions. The accessions were planted in a factorial randomized complete block design with three treatments within three replications. Accessions x treatments interaction are significant (P less than 0.05) for oil contents and disease incidence. There are three accessions HBRS-5, G-46 and G-54 found highly susceptible to charcoal rot while HBRS-1, A-12 and A-79 are moderately resistance to charcoal rot among the 24 accessions of sunflower. While the remaining accessions have their response from moderate susceptible to susceptible in disease incidence. Due to moderate resistance to charcoal rot HBRS-1, A-79 give high value of yield attributes. These accessions are recommended for high yield production in the field while the other accessions are not recommended due to loss in production regarding their susceptibility to charcoal rot (Macrophomina phaseaolina) disease.