Screening of Sorghum Genotypes fFor Resistance to Loose Smut in Nigeri

Abstract

One hundred and four sorghum genotypes were screened under field conditions for loose smut disease using the hypodermic stem injection artificial inoculation technique. The experiment was laid out on a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with two replications. The results of the trial indicated that only twenty nine genotypes (27.9 %) showed loose smut symptom at varying degrees of incidence and with varying severity. Both disease incidence and severity were significantly different (P<0.01) among sorghum genotypes. More than 70 % (73 genotypes) were found to be immune (I) and 5.76 % (six) genotypes were highly resistant (HR) which included, SSV2008030, SSV2008031, SSV2008034, SSV2008066, SSV20080075, and SSV2008088 and nineteen (18.27%) were very susceptible (VS) genotypes. There was no moderately susceptible genotype obtained from the experiment. The results have shown that there are some promising sorghum genotypes that are resistant to the disease and could therefore be introduced to farmers and sorghum breeders for further breeding as well as multi-locational trials.

Keywords; field screening, hypodermic injection, loose smut, sorghum varieties, Sudan savanna