Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT WEATHER PARAMETERS ONDEVELOPMENT OF EARLY BLIGHT OF TOMATO IN GIRD REGION OFMADHYA PRADESH, INDIA

N. Shivajyothi, Prashant Kumar Singh, Shyam Kishor Patel, Prashant Singh, M. Harindra and Talapati A.C. Vydyanad

Abstract

The most devastating disease in all tomato-growing regions of the world is early blight, also known astarget leaf spot of tomato, which is caused by the necrotrophic fungus Alternaria solani. The effect ofenvironmental conditions on the emergence of early blight was researched during the winter of 2021–2022.The illness always began to show symptoms during the 47th Standard Meteorological Week (SMW) andquickly spread throughout the growing season. Maximum temperature, minimum temperature, andevaporation all had statistically positive correlations, however maximum relative humidity and the severityof early blight disease were shown to be strongly negatively correlated. The stepwise regression modelpredicted that the minimum humidity and maximum temperature would account for 80% of the variationin the disease severity. A model created utilising the experimental data can be utilised to forecast thedevelopment of tomato early blight, which will aid in the adoption of timely management techniques.