Mycoflora Associated with Groundnut Seeds Collected from Selected Groundnut Growing Districts of Telangana State, India

Abstract

Groundnut is an important food legume in several developing and developed countries. In India, Telangana state is one of the major groundnut growing states. A survey was conducted to collect a total of 72 groundnut pod samples at the time of harvesting from farmers and local markets in four districts, namely; Karimnagar, Warangal, Nizamabad, Mahabubnagar during 2015-16. These samples studied for detection of seed mycoflora by Agar plate method as recommended by ISTA. The major mycoflora associated with seeds belongs to five fungal genera such as Aspergillus, Fusarium, Alternaria, Macrophomina, Penicillium and total incidence was ranged from 0.67 % - 47.11 %. Samples collected from farmers were highly infected with different mycoflora compared to the samples collected from market. A. niger was predominant (47.11 %) while, the least was Penicillium (0.44 %). Out of four districts surveyed, the total incidence of mycoflora was high in Mahabubnagar and low in Nizamabad. The fungal species A. niger was found associated with all the collected samples of four districts at maximum incidence when compared to other fungal species. Current results imply the urgent need for application of management measures against different seed borne fungi to maintain the quality of groundnut