Impact of Climate on the Development of Viral Diseases in Potato

Abstract

Abstract

Vegetables play an important role in the human diet and provide a continuous source of income to the farmers. A numbers of viral diseases have been reported on potato crop by several workers in the world, which produced various types of typical disease symptoms. Mosaic and leaf roll are the major viral diseases of this crop which cause huge losses in yield as well as quality of tubers. The epidemiological factors played important role in the development of viral diseases in potato. Observations were recorded from the first appearance of the disease. In Kufri Ashoka variety of potato first appearance of disease was recorded in first week of December. The disease progress was slow up to fourth week of December and become rapid from first week of January. The maximum disease intensity (85.58%) was recorded in fourth week of January. Disease was favored by minimum temperature (6.2–7.3°C) and maximum temperature (23.7–26.0°C) along with maximum relative humidity (53.0–70.1).

Keywords: Potato, epidemiological effect, viral diseases, disease intensity