Screening of Lentil (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris) Germplasm for Resistance to Stemphylium Blight Disease Using Qualitative Characters

In terms of both acreage and productivity, lentil is India's second most important pulse crop. Stemphylium blight, caused by Stemphylium botrysum Wallr., is a serious economic problem in eastern parts of India including West Bengal. As most of the cultivated lentil are susceptible to Stemphylium blight disease, the main alternatives for the control of the disease is to use highly toxic fungicides. The objective of this work is to evaluate the responses of 210 numbers of genotype collected from International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in order to support the alternative disease management strategy. The qualitative attributes like days to flowering, height of the plant and leaf area were taken into consideration which were converted to qualitative attributes by using cluster analysis. Along with that branching pattern and canopy types was also recorded as qualitative parameters. The result clearly indicated that days to flowering, leaf area, branching habit and canopy temperature significantly influence the disease development.