Evaluation of disease control and plant growth promotion potential of biocontrol agents on Pisum sativum and comparison of their activity with popular chemicalcontrol agent - carbendazim

Abstract

The superiority of chemicals over biocontrol agents in terms of effective and quick disease control was confirmed in this research but the ill effects of chemicals on human health and environment are a major set back to application of chemical pesticides in the long run. In the present work, biocontrol agents showed significant control on Fusarium wilt disease of pea but the results were not consistent indicating that repeated and well planned application schedule was necessary to obtain desired results. In the greenhouse pot trial, biopesticides; Trichoderma and Pseudomonas showed 50% disease control on an average compared to carbendazim with about 83% result. On the contrary, deleterious effect of carbendazim on non target micro-organisms was also proved in another experiment of this research.   Key words: Biocontrol, pesticide, toxicity.