ABSTRACT
Onion and garlic are the most important vegetable crops in India and has great importance in our diets. Onion is a highly perishable vegetable being used in a regular diet, while garlic is used for flavouring in many dishes. A major fungal bulb rot disease causes 15–30% losses during storage in many varieties. Various genera of fungi and bacteria, viz., Aspergillus, Alternaria, Botrytis, Colletotrichum, Fusarium, Penicillium, Rhizopus, Deckeya and Erwinia, infect onion and garlic bulbs in storage. Aspergillus spp. is the most virulent and aggressive fungal pathogen in both field and storage. The majority of pathogens infect the crop in field conditions, and infection is carried to storage. The disease, including basal rot, onion smudge, downy mildew, purple blotch, white rot, botrytis rot, blue mould rot, black rot, sclerotium bulb rot, bacterial brown rot, bacterial soft rot and sour skin, occurs on onion and garlic, which causes loss in storage and transportation through deterioration in both quality and quantity. Use of conventional approaches like treatment of fungicides alone is insufficient to manage postharvest losses and it is relatively unsafe for human consumption as it affects human health due to the presence of fungicide residues. Hence, the prime focus should be to prevent postharvest spoilage and provide better utilization of the crop in the safest manner. The recent advances on onion and garlic postharvest disease management are reviewed in this chapter.
