Current Status and Symptomatology of Neem Dieback in Raichur and Yadgir Districts of Karnataka, India

Neem is an evergreen tree, native to Indian subcontinent and it is renowned for its medicinal properties and versatile uses in agriculture. Among various diseases that attack neem, dieback is one of the most devastating disease that has been spreading in an alarming rate. A roving survey was conducted in all taluks of Yadgir and Raichur districts of Karnataka, India to know the status of neem dieback and to understand the progressive symptomatology of the disease by considering an average of 20 trees from each place in a taluk. The results revealed that, Yadgir district showed maximum disease incidence (70.00%) whereas, maximum disease severity was observed in Raichur district (43.28%). And among the surveyed taluks Lingasugur taluk recorded maximum disease incidence (100.00%) and severity (88.91%), in contrast, Maski and Gurmatkal recorded minimum disease incidence (40.00%) and severity (13.10%), respectively. The symptoms of dieback observed during the survey were yellowing and drying of leaves, twig blight, fruit rot and death of the infected trees. However, every surveyed taluk showed neem dieback disease irrespective of the age or size of the neem trees.