Status of karnal bunt in wheat seed produced in Haryana
The survey was carried out in eight districts of Haryana to find out status of Karnal bunt in unprocessed wheat seed produced by public and private seed producers during rabi season of 2012–13. The results revealed that out of 410 samples, only 181 samples (44.14%) were found infected with Karnal bunt. The overall range of infection was observed 0.05 – 6.40% which is exceeding the permissible limit of IMSCS for quality seed production. The overall 0.170% average infection was recorded, the maximum in Karnal (0.462%) followed by Jind (0.265%) and minimum in Sirsa (0.015%) followed by Panipat (0.045%). Out of 410 samples, the maximum percentage of infection was found in the samples collected from Karnal (69.23%) followed by Jind (57.84%), Panipat (50.00%), Kurukshetra (41.66%) and Kaithal (40.90%) districts, whereas minimum percentage were in Yamunanagar (16.21%) followed by Sirsa (17.39%). Among varieties, C-306 recorded the maximum average infection (0.488%) whose eight samples were collected from Hisar and one from Jind district followed by HD-2285 (0.366%) and PBW-343 (0.357%). Whereas, minimum average infection were found in WH-711 (0.014%) followed by DBW-17 (0.040%). The variety PBW-343 was recorded with highest range of infection (0.25–6.40%) in Karnal. None of the district and variety was found free from Karnal bunt.