Influence of weather parameters on northern leaf blight development of maize incited by Exserohilum turcicum (Pass.) Leonard and Suggs in Nepal

Abstract

Northern leaf blight (NLB) (Exserohilum turcicum) is the most important among disease of maize in cold and humid areas in Nepal. Environmental factors, particularly temperature and relative humidity, have a significant impact on the development of diseases. With the objective to correlate weather parameters with disease development, the experiment was conducted using three distinct varieties: Popcorn Gorkha 3 (Susceptible check), Rampur Composite (Standard and Local Check), and Rampur Hybrid 10 (Resistant Check). Numerous disease-related variables, including disease incidence percent, percent disease index (PDI), area under the disease progress curve (AUDPC), and the number of infected leaves per sample plant (IL/S), were correlated with mean relative humidity (RH), maximum temperature, and lowest temperature. The disease severity raised from 22.22% to 88.89% in Pop Corn Gorkha 3, from 11.54% to 30.77% in Rampur Composite, and from 3.33% to 10% in Rampur Hybrid 10, when the minimum temperature dropped from 11.2°C to 6.2°C. Correlation coefficient and principal component analysis showed that minimum and maximum temperature were negatively correlated while RH was positively correlated. According to the coefficient of determination (R²), certain meteorological factors contributed 94%–99% to the severity of the condition. The crucial step in developing disease management methods is a systematic examination of the correlation between meteorological variables and disease severity.

Keywords:

• Corn
• severity
• turcicum leaf blight
• weather parameters
• principal component analysis

Public interest statement

As disease development is contributed by many factors, among them weather is the most important one. It has impact on both pathogen and host. This paper highlights the influence of weather on the development of northern leaf blight of maize.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thanks all the personnel of Department of Plant Pathology, Agriculture and Forestry University for managing the trial. I would also like to thanks Dr. Sundar Man Shrestha, Dr. Hira Kaji Manandhar, Mr. Ritesh Kumar Yadav and Mr. Suk Bahadur Gurung for their valuable suggestion and guidance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Novelty statement

The trajectory and intensity of epidemics are largely influenced by weather conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to research the effects of various climatic variables, particularly temperature and relative humidity, on the development of Northern leaf blight of maize.

Additional information

Funding

This work wasn’t supported financially by any organization.

Notes on contributors

Shishir Sharma

Shishir Sharma is currently working as a Campus chief/Assistant professor of Plant Pathology at Purwanchal Agriculture Campus, affiliated to Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur. The author has interest to work on isolation and identification of phytopathogenic fungi. Integrated disease management, cultural and morphological characteristics of pathogens are his research interest. He had also worked as Research assistant at National Maize Research Program, Rampur.