1. Cumbu smut, caused by the fungus Moesziomyces penicillariae, infects pearl millet crops. 2. It has been reported worldwide, including India where it causes 5-20% yield losses. 3. Symptoms include swollen black sori replacing grains. Sporeballs are released that can infect new crops. 4. Management includes growing resistant varieties, removing infected plants, crop rotation, and fungicide application.

1. COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY
(Affiliated to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore-3)
Kullapuram (Po), ViaVaigai Dam, Theni - 625 562
PAT 302 DISEASE OF FIELD CROPS AND THEIR
MANAGEMENT (1+1)
CUMBU SMUT
COURSE TEACHER STUDENT
Dr.PARTHASARTHY.S NAME : C.GOKILA
Asst.Professor (Plant Pathology) ID.NO : 2015021038

2. Cumbu smut or Bajra smut
• Moesziomyces penicillariae (Vanky 1977)
• Syn : Tolyposporium penicillariae Bref (Berfield 1895)

3. Occurance
History
• The disease reported from Pakistan, several parts of Africa and
the USA.
• The earliest reports of this disease are from Senegal by
Chevalier 1931.
• In India it was first reported by Ajrekar and Likhite (1933).

4. Geographical distribution
World
• Smut disease has been reported in Burkina, Faso,
Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Mozambique,
Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan,
the UAS, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Peregrine and Siddiqui
1972, Rachie and Majmudar 1980 and Rothwell 1983)

5. India
• Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

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7. Significance
Economical
• In India a survey during 1950s indicated that smut
severity in farmers field ranged from 1 to 30% in parts of
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra (Rachie
and Majmudar 1980).
• In 1971 Bhowmik and Sundram reported that 50 to 70%
of the crops infected by smut with damage upto 100% in
individual panicle.

8. • According to annual reports f All India Coordinated
Millet Improvement Programme (AICMIP) the disease
has become more important in northern India particularly
in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
• The increased severity due to commercial cultivation of
hybrids.
• In general 5-20% of grain losses have been reported.

9. Symptoms
• The infected florets,
ovaries are converted into
structures called sori.
• The sori larger than grains
and appear as enlarged.
• Initially the sori are bright
green but later they turn
brown to black.
©http://www.icrisat.org

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12. • The sori are usually 3-4 mm long and 2-3 mm broad at
the top.
• They are covered by a thin membrane which often breaks
at maturity to release brown to black sporeballs.
• Infection may involve a light scattering of sori among
grain on panicles up to complete coverage.

13. • In panicle having poor head exsertion.
• The lower portion covered by fag leaf is heavily infected
with smut.

14. Pathogen
• Moeziomyces penicillariae (Vanky 1977)
• Syn : Tolyposporium penicillariae Bref (Berfield 1895)

15. Systamatic position
Kingdom : Fungi
Phylum : Basidiomycotina
Class : Basidiomycetes
Order : Ustilaginaceae
Genus : Moesziomyecs
Species : penicillariae

16. Pathogen characters
• The teleutospores occurs in compact, ball like mass cells
called sporeballs. Sporeballs vary in shape from circular
to near polyhedral.
• The number of teleutospore aggregated in balls varies
from 200 to 1400.
• Individual teleutospores do not separate readily and are
mostly angular to round, light brown.

17. ©http://www.icrisat.org ©http://collections.daff.qld.gov.au

18. • The morphology of the pathogen has been described by
Maudkur and Thirumalachar (1952), Ramkrishnan
(1971), Vanky (1977), Subba Rao and Thakur (1983) and
Chahal et al (1986).

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• The promycelium is four
celled and forms both
lateral and terminal
sporidia.
• Sporidia are produced on
branched hypae in chain.
• Sporidia are hyaline, one
celled and spindle shaped

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21. Life cycle
• The pathogen is soil borne. The primary inoculum consist
of spore balls that have fallen on the ground.
• Teleutospores germinate following rain showers and
produce numerous air bron sporidia that infect the pearl
millet at flowering stage.
• Time from inoculation to spore production is 2 weeks and
sori mature within 3-4 weeks.

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23. • Matured sori ruptured to release masses of sporeballs
which under favourable weather condition.
• These sporidia can infect late planted crops in near by
field or panicles of late tillers of same field.

24. Mode of spread
• Primary spread by soil. The sporeballs survive in soil.
• Secondary spread by air borne smut spores.

25. Favourable conditions
• High humidity.
• Temperature between 25-35ºC is optimum for disease
development.
• Slightly acidic soil favour for disease development.

26. Integrated disease management
• Breeding of smut resistant open pollinated varieties
through recurrent selections has shown promise. Two
population varieties developed at ICRTSAT center that is
ICML 82131, ICM 82132 and two synthetics ICMS 8282,
ICM 8283 have shown a high level of resistance to smut.
• Smut tolerant varieties are WC-C 75, CM 46 and MBH
110 .

27. • Removal of affected smutted ears and burnt it.
• Use clean seeds for avoid the smut disease.
• Hot weather maintain to avoid the smut disease.
• Provide deep ploughing in field.

28. • Field sanitation is important.
• Provide crop rotation.
• Intercropping of mungbean with pearl millet reduces smut
incidence.

29. • The leaf extract of Eucalyptus obliqua @ 30% gave
maximum growth inhibition of the fungus (9.00 mm)
followed by Datura stramonium (15.0 mm) while the
mixed extract of Zingiber officinale + Allium sativum was
found least effective (39.50 mm) and maximum growth
was recorded in Control (62.5 mm).
• Eucalyptus leaf, Datura leaf, and Azadirachta extracts @
20% also inhibited the fungal growth and were
significantly superior over the other tested extracts.

30. • Seed treatment with carboxin 2g/kg of seed or
carbendazim/Thiram/Capton 4g/kg of seed.
• Hexaconazole, propiconazole and carboxin @ 0.1 percent
absolute inhibition the smut fungal growth.
• Spray of fungicide such as carboxin and captafol at boot
stage has been recommended.