**5. Management strategies**

For the management of anthracnose disease of chilli, different strategies are adapted. These are use of cultural practices, chemical control, eco-friendly measures like use of biocontrol agents, plant extracts and use of resistant cultivars. Generally, use of different strategies in combination has been recommended for managing the disease [65]. The summarized information is given from across the world for the management of this disease.

### **5.1 Cultural practices**

Several cultural practices have been reported to manage chilli anthracnose due to the special etiology of the pathogen. These precautionary measures are implemented to reduce the rate of infection and minimize the inoculum pressure even before fruits are mature and harvested. Than et al. [47] and Ali et al. [66] in their review reported that different cultural practices like disease free seeds, weeding, crop rotation, proper drainage, removal of crop residue are being followed for the chilli cultivation. It was suggested that disease free chilli seeds should be planted and elimination of weeds should be done in chilli field and rotation of chilli crop with other crops which are not alternative hosts to *Colletotrichum* spp. after every 2–3 years is very effective for controlling this disease. Good drainage systems on the field to channel out waste water during irrigation regimes, on-farm fruit disinfection such as fruit washing at packing houses and finally removal of plant debris which may serve as source of inoculum are some other clean crop and sanitation practices [47]. If there was history of disease in a particular field, then other crops should be rotated in isolation from other solanaceous plant for at least alternate years [50]. Deep plow is recommended to completely cover diseases plants or removing infected plant debris from the field at the end of growing season [67]. Early planting of chilli or planting cultivars that bear fruit within a short ripening period to allow the fruit to escape fungal infection is also recommended. Other alternative sanitation practices such as weeding, removal of infected or wounded fruits should be carried out regularly to prevent the pathogens from using such wounds as sites of infection.

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**5.3 Biological control**

*Anthracnose of Chilli: Status, Diagnosis, and Management*

effective for better control of the disease [70].

for effective management of the disease [47, 79].

Different strategies for managing the disease are recommended and chemical control is found most effective and practical method [68]. As time required for controlling the disease with chemical method is much lesser as compared to the time required for the development of resistant cultivar. Use of protective fungicide like manganese ethylene bisdithiocarbamate (Maneb) is widely recommended for managing this disease. Other dithiocarbamate fungicides like Mancozeb (0.2%), ziram (0.1%), copper oxychloride fungicide (Blitox 50), and Bordeaux mixture (0.5 or 1%) of a copper sulphate fungicide were found effective in managing this disease. Seed dressing with benzimidazole fungicides (Benlate, delsene M) and strobilurin fungicide (azoxystrobin) are recommended [69] and soaking of chilli seeds for 12 h in 0.2% Thiram, a dithiocarbamate fungicide was also found

Among different systemic fungicides recommended Bavistin (carbendazin 50%WP) 0.1%, Plantvax (oxycarboxin) and vitavax (carboxin) were found effective as use of Bavistin resulted in 80.84% disease reduction [71] and Plantvax and Vitavax were reported to reduce the disease by checking the spore germination of *C. truncatum* [72]. Additionally other systemic fungicides from triazole group propiconazole [73], difenoconazole, benzimidazole fungicide (Benomyl) [74] have been used in both pre and post-harvest management of chilli anthracnose, as propiconazole, exhibited the highest level of inhibition of in vitro mycelial growth, biomass production, sporulation and spore germination at concentrations as low as 0.1 mg/ml. Other workers also reported that Tilt (propiconazole) is highly effective in controlling *Colletrotrichum* spp. [75, 76] concentration of Tilt at 150 ppm was found effective in inhibiting the pathogen as it caused 50% inhibition (ED 50) of *C. acutatum* growth in culture media [77]. It is to be noted that Benomyl and its associated fungicides Carbendazim and thiophanate methyl (both of which registered) has raised major health concerns and these are proved unacceptable and dangerous [78]. Different strobilurin fungicides azoxystrobin (Quadris), trifloxystrobin (Flint) and pyraclostrobin (Cabrio) have also been recommended

Moreover, dependence on only single chemical resulted in the emergence of resistant strains of *C*. *truncatum* isolates from chilli fruit against different chemicals benomyl, which were cross-resistant to thiophanate methyl and carbendazim [80], resistance of *C. truncatum* to benomyl and strobilurin-fungicides (azoxystrobin and kresoxim-methyl) is also reported [81–83]. Under such circumstances, combined application of Bioagents with chemicals are recommended, *Pseudomonas fluorescens* along with half of the recommended dose of azoxystrobin fungicide has been found effective and viable option to control fruit rot [79]. As use of chemicals are not eco-friendly and it leaves chemical residue in chilli fruits, which hinders the export, and there are numerous reports describing negative effects of using chemicals on farmer's health in developing countries [36]. To overcome the undesirable effects of chemical usage alternate methods such as use of bioagents, plant extracts or use of chemicals in combination with these are recommended to control the infection.

*Trichoderma* species is the fungal antagonist which is widely applied to control *Colletotrichum* species in chilli [84, 85]. It is also believed that *Trichoderma* species are able to effectively compete for surface area, thereby reducing pathogen infection success [86–88]. Chloroform extracts of nonvolatile antibiotics (NVAC) of *T. viride*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93614*

**5.2 Chemical control**
