Status of Karnal Bunt in Major Wheat Growing Regions of Northern Haryana

Karnal bunt is a major problem in reducing the quality of wheat seed during seed production programmes in Haryana. A survey was conducted to access the status of Karnal bunt in major wheat growing regions of Haryana during Rabi season of 2018-19. During the survey 11 districts of northern Haryana viz., Hisar, Yamunanagar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Ambala, Jind, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat and Sonipat were covered. Under the survey a total of 785 samples of wheat grains were collected from 34 grain markets. Samples revealed the range of Karnal bunt was between 0.05 – 4.70 per cent in these districts which was exceeding the permissible limit of Indian Minimum Seed Certification Standards (0.25%) for quality wheat seed production. The infected samples were 395 (50.31%) and rejected samples were 155 (19.74%) having infection more than 0.25 per cent. Maximum average infection was found in Karnal district (0.413%), Hisar (0.278%) and Kurukshetra (0.273%) and the minimum was recorded in Sirsa (0.012%), Ambala (0.077%) and Fatehabad (0.104%). The range of infection was highest in Karnal (0.05 - 4.70%), then Hisar (0.05 - 4.50%) followed by Kurukshetra (0.05 - 3.40%) and lowest was observed in Sirsa (0.05 - 0.10).