Prevalence of citrus decline in district Sargodha

Abstract

Citrus occupies a prominent position in fruit industry all over the world. In Pakistan, it ranks first in terms of area, production and export among other fruits. The quality fruit production is under serious threat due to a number of diseases and disorders. Among diseases, citrus decline is of significant importance. As no systematic information is available on the prevalence of this disease, therefore, surveys were conducted to observe disease incidence, severity and percent disease index of citrus decline in six tehsils of district Sargodha. Maximum mean disease incidence was recorded in tehsil Sargodha (94.06%) followed by tehsil Shahpur (93.33%) while it was the minimum in tehsil Sillanwali (35.73%). Similarly, mean disease severity was found to be the maximum in tehsil Sargodha (1.47) followed by tehsil Bhalwal and was the minimum in Sillanwali (0.64). As regards disease index, it was recorded to the maximum in tehsil Sargodha (29.41%) followed by tehsil Shahpur (26.75%). On the other hand, minimum disease index was again observed in tehsil Sillanwali (10.36%). It is, therefore, concluded that decline is widely prevalent in citrus orchards in district Sargodha and warrants strict control measures to abate yield losses.