Synopsis Summary:


Water hyacinth [Eichhornia crassipes (Martius) Soms- Laubach] is a pernicious aquatic weed seen all over the world. This infects 2 lakh hectares of water surface causing problems in 98 out of the 246 districts in India. Management of this weed can be taken up by physical, chemical of biological means. The most widely followed practice is manual collection and destruction. This is not very successful as the weed multiplies very fast. Chemical destruction of the weed by herbicide is not feasible in most cases because of the pollution problems and the expense involved. Thus, making biological control a possible alternative. Laboratory and glass house studies conducted in the Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Kerala, indicated the possibility of using Fusarium pallidoroseum as a biocontrol agent against water hyacinth. The fungus is non pathogenic to crop plants, insects and fishes. One problem encountered in the large scale use of the fungus under field conditions was its low rate of infectivity on healthy plants. This was overcome by pretreatment of the weeds with Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) a byproduct of the cashew industry. CNSL being a product of plant origin does not cause any pollution problem. Further it is cheap and locally available in Kerala. Thus the aim of the present project is to prepare the most efficient method of integration of F.pallidoroseum and CSNL and to use it in the management of water hyacinth from the water bodies of Kerala.