ICAR SPONSORED SHORT COURSE ON “MAKING GRETAER USE OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE”, 4-13 NOV, 2019; AAU: JORHAT:ASSAM 1 ICAR Sponsored Short Course On “Making Greater Use of Biocontrol Agents For Organic Agriculture” Organized by: Department of Plant Pathology Assam Agricultural University Jorhat- 785013, Assam ICAR SPONSORED SHORT COURSE ON “MAKING GRETAER USE OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE”, 4-13 NOV, 2019; AAU: JORHAT:ASSAM 2 The publication has been brought out on the occasion of a Short Course on “Making Greater Use of Biocontrol Agents for Organic Agriculture” sponsored by ICAR, New Delhi and organized by Department of Plant Pathology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat- 13, Assam from 4th to 13th November, 2019 Editorial Board Dr. Pranab Dutta Dr. B. C. Das Dr. D. K. Sarmah Member Ms. Arti Kumari Cover design: Mr. Gaurav Phookan ©Department of Plant Pathology, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat-13, Assam ICAR SPONSORED SHORT COURSE ON “MAKING GRETAER USE OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE”, 4-13 NOV, 2019; AAU: JORHAT:ASSAM 3 CONTENT Chapter Title No. 1. An overview of AAU’s achievement on biological control 2. Trichoderma- the most powerful arsenal for plant disease management 3. Exploitation of biological agents for management of viral diseases of agricultural crops 4. Biological Control- an ecological perspective 5. Mass production technology of Beauveria bassiana 6. Morphological characterization of fungal bio-control agents 7. Mass production technology of Trichoderma harzianumwith locally available substrates 8. Mass culture technique of Biocontrol agents for management of mites of agricultural crops 9. Agro-forestry and Organic Farming 10. Disease management of vegetable crops in organic agriculture 11. Field use of bioformulations for management of rapeseed- mustard diseases 12. Embracing social engineering for innovative pest management 13. Biological management of nematode pests of agricultural crops 14. Protection of Biopesticides under the IPR regime: an overview ICAR SPONSORED SHORT COURSE ON “MAKING GRETAER USE OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE”, 4-13 NOV, 2019; AAU: JORHAT:ASSAM 4 15. Exploitation of VAM in the management of plant diseases caused by pathogenic nematode and its mass multiplication 16. Isolation of fungal biocontrol agents, endophytes and study on their evaluation 17. Phylloplane bacteria and plant disease management 18. Preparation of plant extracts, efficiency test and their use for plant disease management Biological management of diseases of flowering plants 19 20 Entomopathogenic Nematodes- a promising biocontrol tool against insect pests 21. Isolation of biocontrol agents from soil sample 22. Purification of fungal/ bacterial antagonists ICAR SPONSORED SHORT COURSE ON “MAKING GRETAER USE OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE”, 4-13 NOV, 2019; AAU: JORHAT:ASSAM 5 Chapter-1 An Overview of AAU’s Achievement on Biological Control A. Bhattacharyya Acting Vice Chancellor cum Director of Research (Agri) Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat-785013, Assam At Assam Agricultural University, the work on biological control has started during 1970-80’s initially on biological control of Rhizoctonia solani by Trichoderma viride. Since then a large number of biocontrol agents has been explored and developed effective biopesticides for the management of plant pathogens and insect pests. Following are some of the example of biopesticides with the targeted pests and diseases. Nameof Biocontrol agent Target pests/diseases Bioformulation Liquid Org-Metajal Metarhizium anisopliae Termite, aphid , scale insect Also act as endophyte and give induced resistance Org-Trichojal Trichoderma harzianum Soil borne plant pathogen like Rhizoconiasolani, Sclerotium rolfsii, Sclerotiniasclerotiorum, Fusarium sp., etc. Also act as plant growth enhancer Org-Vertijal Verticillium leccanii Red spider mite, Scale insect Org-Beauverijal Beauveria bassiana Rice hispa, Halopeltis, Tea Mosquito bug, Fusarium etc. Org-Cilliumjal Purpurocilliumlilacinus Root knot nematode Org-Pochojal Pochoniachlamydosporia Root Knot nematode Org-Metahim Metarhiziumanisopliae Termite, aphid, scale insect Solid Biofor-PF-2 Pseudomonas fluorescens Fungal and bacterial soil borne plant pathogen and Trichoderma harzianum Biozin-PTB Pseudomonas fluorescens, Fungal plant pathogen like Pythium, Fusarium, Trichoderma viride, Bacillus Colletotrichum, Rhizoctonia, Macrophomina, brevis Sclerotinia, Xanthomonas, Ralstonia Bio-Llium Verticillium lecannii Nematodes, whitefly, thrips, mites, aphids, jassids, ants Bio-Meta Metarhizium anisopliae Red ants, termites, mosquito larvae, planthoppers, cattle ticks Bio-Sona Beauveria bassiana Rice hispa, Helicoverpa, white fly, mites, coffee borer Bioveer Trichoderma viride Bacterial and fungal wilt, anthracnose, root and stem rots ICAR SPONSORED SHORT COURSE ON “MAKING GRETAER USE OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE”, 4-13 NOV, 2019; AAU: JORHAT:ASSAM 6 Biogreen-5 Beauveria bassiana, Rhizome rot and wilt of ginger& turmeric, wilt Metarhizium anisopliae, disease of tomato &chilli, Tea mosquito bug, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Tea looper, red spider mites, stem borer, rice Trichoderma viride and hispa Bacillus thuringiensis Biotime Metarhizium anisopliae, Bacterial and fungal wilt, anthracnose, root and Pseudomonas fluorescens stem rots,diseases of tea, Red ants, Termites, and Trichoderma harzianum coconut leaf beetle, stem borer, leaf folder Biosona Beauveria bassiana Rice hispa, aphids, Tea mosquito bug, stem borer, thrips, whitefly, looper, mites Biozium Trichoderma harzianum Bacterial and fungal wilt, anthracnose, root and stem rots MOs of the above mentioned products has already been tested in farmers field and found effective for the management of various listed pests and diseases. Besides these, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat also started work on classical biological control of invasive weeds or alien invasive weeds for which the institute has received fund from DFID, CABI, UK etc. After the host specificity test of Puccinia spegazzinii- Trinidad Isolate (W1761) to M. micrantha which was tested by centrifugal phylogenetic testing sequence in quarentine facility of NBPGR, New Delhi showed none of the 74 economically important plants species were found infected with the fungus. So, a classical biological control (CBC) agents viz., P. spegazzinii intentionally released to combat M. micrantha in the tea ecosystem of Assam for the first time in India & continental Asia. Thus, India became the eighth country in the world to have released a plant pathogen for CBC of invasive weed. In an another experiment Puccinia cacao was identified as potential biocontrol agent from the North east India for the management of Hygrophila polysperma. Similarly, Successful control of water hyacinth, Eichhorniacrassipes has been achieved by the exotic weevil Neochetinaeichhorniae, N. bruchi @50,000 per ha and found the dispersal of the weevil in 8 districts of Assam through aerial migration & Brahmaputra river and its tributaries. In Sibsagar district of Assam > 700 ha of water body has been cleared off by the action of this exotic weevil & control achieved is about 90% (Basit, 2002). On the other hand for the management of many lepidopteran pests like sugarcane borer, Chilospp, rice stem borer, Scirpophaga incertulas; tomato fruit borer, Helicoverpa armigera; cut worms, Agrotis spp; cotton boll worm, Pectinophora gossypiella and Ear spp, maize bore, Chilopartellus egg parasitoid Trichogramma has been identified as potential bioagents which ICAR SPONSORED SHORT COURSE ON “MAKING GRETAER USE OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE”, 4-13 NOV, 2019; AAU: JORHAT:ASSAM 7 suppress various caterpillar pests damaging many agricultural crops. Trichocard that contain the eggs of the parasitoid are released in the field 30-45 days after sowing or transplanting @50,000 to 1,00,000 eggs/ha/release. Totally 3-6 releases are made depending upon the build up of pest population coinciding with egg stage of the target pests. In the North east India there is huge scope of biopesticides because of congenial environmental condition that favours the BCA i.e., RH (>80%), temperature(12-35 0 C), low pH, Rainfall (300-3000 mm) favourable for BCA, wide diversity in terms of species and strains of biopesticidal resources i.e. plants, fungi, bacteria, virus, parasitoids, predators and good potential market for biopesticides for large scale cultivation of tea and rice as organic. Path ahead: • Further studies needed to determine the environmental effects on the fate of bio-agents • New technologies such as micro encapsulation of bio-control agents may be of high priority in enhancing their potential • Integration of bio-pesticides with botanical pesticides has a lot of potential in pest management • Integration of bio-pesticides with chemical pesticides as part of Bio-intensive Integrated Pest Management (BIPM) ******** ICAR SPONSORED SHORT COURSE ON “MAKING GRETAER USE OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS FOR ORGANIC AGRICULTURE”, 4-13 NOV, 2019; AAU: JORHAT:ASSAM 8 Chapter-2 Trichoderma- the most powerful Arsenal for plant disease management A.N. Mukhopadhyay Former Vice-Chancellor, Assam Agril. University, Jorhat, Director General Tea Research Association and Dean, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar. Address: ‘Sangini’ 151 Akanksha, Udyan II, Raibareilly Road, Lucknow-226025, U.P. INDIA Email: [email protected] During last decade, species of Trichoderma