The fungi are present in air, soil and water and associated with living or dead plants and animals throughout the world.

Contamination is recognized by yellow-green to blue-green colour of the kernal.

During their metabolism these fungi not only produce Aflotoxins but also deteriorate the nutritive value of the associated food commodities.

The nature of the strain of the fungus, substrate, temperature, relative humidity, moisture content of the substrate and aeration have been found to influence the quality and quantity of aflotoxins produced.

Premature drying of pods, shell damage and kernel splitting during growth may lead to toxicity at harvest.

These conditions may result from termite and nematode damage to the pods during weeding and other intercultural operations, drought, and long exposure of groundnut pods after harvest to atmosphere congenial to the growth of the fungus.

— Select groundnut seed varieties which are resistant to Aspergillus flavus and treat them with Diathane M45 (at 3 g/kg) before planting.

— Maintain optimal plant population in the field (33 plants per sq m) and apply farm yard manure or compost at 5-10 tons/ha.

— Gypsum may be applied at 400-500 kg/ha at flowering.

— Apply biofertilizer such as Trichoderma at 1 kg/ha to provide competitive and antagonistic effects towards Aspergillus flavus .

— Control insects such as termites, white grubs which damage the pods.

— Avoid end-season drought with irrigation, if possible.

— Remove manually damaged pods, loose-shelled kernels and immature pods which are the most likely to be contaminated.

— Remove dead plants from the field before harvest and harvest the crop at right maturity.

KENGANAL

& KAVERA S. BIRADAR

SEED UNIT, UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIEN