ABSTRACT
Trichoderma Pers. Ex Fr. is a well-known biological control agent used in plant disease management. Besides its role in biological control, this fungus is useful in fabric detergent, animal feed and fuel production, effluent treat ment, degradation of organic pesticides, and as an alternative to conven tional bleaching. With the advent of high-yielding varieties in agriculture, the occurrence of new plant diseases and high level of disease incidences came in and that forced the farmers to go for chemical control of plant dis eases. The use of chemicals in plant protection not only caused the resis tance in the pathogens but has also become a concern for the environmental safety. Today, the residual toxicity of chemical pesticides is traceable in all kinds of foodstuff, including drinking water and breast milk fed to infants. To combat this problem, the biological controls of plant diseases have been tried in many laboratories in the world. One of the major fungal biocontrol agents is Trichoderma. Trichoderma spp. are fungi that are present in nearly all types of soils and other diverse habitats (Ray and Misra, 1995). In soil, they frequently are the most prevalent cultivable fungi. Besides their use as biocontrol agents, they are also used as plant growth-promoting fungi. Trichoderma spp. are the source for many of the genes used for the production of transgenic plants.
