Archives of Current Research International

A total of 125 advanced breeding lines of pigeonpea were evaluated for resistance against Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium udum Butler under natural epiphytotic conditions in Uniform Fusarium wilt sick plot at Agricultural Research Station, PJTAU, Tandur Telangana. The experiment was laid out in augmented randomized block design during kharif 2023–24 by adopting a standard screening method by including resistant and susceptible checks at regular intervals along with test entries to ensure uniform disease pressure. Wilt incidence was recorded periodically from 60 to 180 days after sowing, and percent disease incidence (PDI) was computed for each entry. Based on the disease reaction scale, it was observed the existence of considerable variation among the genotypes for wilt incidence. Out of 125 genotypes screened for wilt incidence, 21 genotypes were categorized as resistant (0–10%), 46 identified as moderately resistant (10.1–30%), while the remaining 58 genotypes exhibited susceptible reaction with more than 30% wilt incidence. The resistant check ICPL 87119 consistently expressed zero wilt incidence, whereas the susceptible check ICPL 2376 showed severe disease expression which confirms the reliability of wilt sick plot. The identified resistant genotypes represent valuable sources of Fusarium wilt resistance and could be effectively utilized in future pigeonpea breeding programmes aimed at developing high-yielding wilt-resistant cultivars.