Evaluation of integrated crop management strategies to combat collar rot (Sclerotium rolfsii) in elephant foot yam

Root and tuber crops are important food crops that are climate resilient. Elephant foot yam is an important tuber crop with high yield potential. The experiment was conducted over six years at the Department of Vegetable Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The aims were to evaluate different management strategies to control collar rot disease in elephant foot yam. The results showed that out of seven treatment combinations treatment T₃ recorded significantly the highest corm yield per plant (2.58 kg) and corm yield per hectare (38.67 t) with high benefit-cost ratio (2.13). The lowest values for yield per plant (1.81 kg), corm yield per hectare (25.60 t) and benefit cost ratio (1.30) was recorded inT₃-control. This indicate that, for soil-borne diseases in elephant foot yam, integrated crop management practices play a key role when the crops are under biotic stress.