Sorghum Diseases in India

Table 1. Forage sorghum production in Japan
from 1976 to 1985. 1
Table 1. Forage sorghum production in Japan
from 1976 to 1985. 1
Area Production
Year ('000 ha) ('000 t)
1976 19.3 1 334
1977 21.3 1 530
1978 27.2 1 847
1979 30.0 2 144
1981 36.9 2 534
1982 37.5 2 496
1983 37.3 2 547
1984 36.2 2 492
1985 35.5 2 385
1. Source: Japan: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and
Fisheries, (1986).
The sorghum breeding program in Japan was
initiated at the Chugoku National Agricultural
Experiment Station from 1962 to 1971 and at two
government-funded stations set up in Prefectural
Agricultural Experiment Stations. At these
stations, major emphasis is placed on improving
yield, palatability and digestibility, tolerance to
low temperatures, and resistance to lodging,
bird injury, pests, and diseases.
Diseases of Sorghum in Japan
As in the case of many other crops of which the
cultivation has been intensified, sorghum in Japan
has recently developed disease problems.
The major diseases (Table 2) are leaf blight, anthracnose,
zonate leaf spot, target leaf spot, banded
leaf and sheath blight, bacterial leaf stripe.
Two of these, yellow spot (Cercospora koepkei)
and hayake-byou (Kabatiella sorghi), do not appear
in the Compendium of Sorghum Diseases
published by the American Pathological Society
in 1986. Symptoms and agents of these diseases
are outlined as follows:
Hayake-byou
This disease, caused by Kabatiella sorghi (Nishihara
and Yokoyama 1971), occurs in many areas
of Japan.
Symptoms. The disease occurs mainly on leaf
blades and rarely on leaf sheath, stems, and
32
heads. The symptoms consist of large numbers
of small circular, elliptical, or spindle-shaped
spots 5 mm across. Lesions are water-soaked
at first, and then become yellowish-brown or
brownish-purple with light yellow haloes. When
the spots are numerous, the whole leaf becomes
brownish-purple and dies prematurely.
Causal organism. The acervuli are indistinct
without setae. Hyaline clavate conidiophores, 10-
20 by 3-5 µm in size, emerge from the stomata or
through the epidermis. The conidia are borne in a
cluster at the tip of the conidiophore. The conidia
are hyaline, falcate, nonseptate, and from 10-21
by 1.8-3.0 µm in size. The fungus is similar to the
corn eyespot fungus [Kabatiella zeae Narita and
Hiratsuka (1959)], but conidia and conidiophore
size and type of parasitism are different.
Yellow spot
This disease of sorghum was first observed in
China prefecture near Tokyo in 1940.
Table 2. Sorghum diseases recorded in Japan.
Common name Causal agent
Viral disease
Sugarcane mosaic Sugarcane mosaic virus
Bacterial disease
Bacterial leaf stripe Pseudomonas
andropogonis
Fungal disease
Anthracnose Colletotrichum
graminicola
Banded leaf and
sheath blight
Rhizoctonia solani
Ergot
Claviceps sp
Gray leaf spot Cercospora sorghi
Leaf blight
Exserohilum turcicum
Rust
Puccinia purpurea
Covered kernel smut Sporisorium reilianum
Loose kernel smut Spliacelotheca cruenta
Head smut Sporisoriutn sorghi
Sooty stripe Ramulispora sorghi
Southern sclerotial
rot
Sclerotium rolfsii
Target leaf spot Bipolaris cookei
Zonate leaf spot Gloeocercospora sorghi
Hayake-byou Kabatiella sorghi
Yellow spot Cercospora koepkei var sorghi