ABSTRACT
Among all diseases of jute, stem rot incited by Macrophomina phaseolina is economically most important. Although commonly known as stem rot, but any part of the plant may be infected by the pathogen at any stage of growth right from germination to harvest producing various symptoms, like, damping-off, seedling blight, leaf blight at seedling stage, stem rot, collar rot, stem break, root rot at adult plant stage and brown spot on pods especially in seed crop. Other important diseases of jute are anthracnose, black band, soft rot, jute mosaic, and root knot nematode. In Hooghly wilt, Ralstonia solanacearum is the actual pathogen, whereas stem rot fungus and root knot nematode help in facilitating the entry of the original pathogen. The disease is seed, soil, as well as air borne. Management of fungal diseases of jute and allied fiber crops involves management of soil condition for soil borne diseases, treatment of seed with fungicides for seed borne diseases and application of fungicides to check the air borne spores, or good combination of both. Rouging of infected plants and spraying of insecticides to check vectors could prevent the spread of the viral diseases.
The diseases of Jute have been discussed below with introduction/economic importance, symptoms, casual organism, disease cycle, epidemiology, and integrated management strategies.
