Indian Phytopath. 59 (4) : 496-500 (2006) Effect of Banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV) on growth and yield of cultivar Nendran (Plantain, AAB)

ABSTRACT: To find the yield loss due to BBrMV in cv. Nendran (AAB), fixed field plot experiments were conducted in Tiruchirapalli District of Tamil Nadu during 1997-1999. BBrMV infected plants and symptom free healthy plants were randomly selected and tagged for recording the observations. The average yield reduction due to BBrMV was 30 per cent. The reduction in bunch weight over healthy plants was 32.7, 53.69, 30.61 and 28.84 per cent in four different fields and the variations in bunch weights of infected and healthy plants were highly significant. The yield loss varied between orchards. The yield differences between healthy and infected plants were more in fertile soil than in saline sodic, low fertile soil and from the infected plants malformed bunches of less weight, underdeveloped fingers emerged, making them not marketable. Key words: Bract mosaic virus, plantain, banana, soil fertility, yield loss Banana and plantain are the most important fruit crops of our country. Fungal and viral diseases considerably hamper banana production in India. Banana Bract Mosaic Virus (BBrMV) disease was first observed in the Phillipines in 1988 (Magnaye and Espino, 1990) and yield loss to the tune of 40 per cent has been recorded (Roperos and Magnaye, 1991). In India, banana bract mosaic is present i