Isolation and identification of fungal diseases infecting carrot plants in Sokoto State of Nigeria

Abstract

Carrot plants are often afflicted with myriad of diseases that tend to lessen their eventual yield. With the increasing pressure to provide food for the world sever growing population there is need to curtail the adverse effect of these diseases. This study was aimed at investigating the epidemiological prevalence of some fungal diseases effecting carrot vegetables in selected areas in Sokoto state. To realize these, diseased carrots picked from the study areas were investigated to identify the pathogens affecting them. The carrot samples (leaves and roots) were collected from Moreh, Badageni and Ruggar Liman farm areas for fungal isolation and identification. The result revealed ten fungal species from six genera of Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium, Mucor, Alternaria and Acremonium. Out of the fungal species isolated, Fusarium oxysporum was found to have the highest frequency of occurrence with 31.87% and Acremonium strictum had the least with (1.10%). All the farms had one pathogen or the other and are present in both the leaves and roots. Badageni farm had the highest occurrence of the isolates mostly on the leaves followed closely by Moreh farm. The findings revealed that carrots in Sokoto were susceptible to fungal attacks, and Fusarium species appeared to be the most active of all pathogens associated with the fungal diseases as such, carrots should be well washed and if possible cooked well before eating.