Present Insights into Tikka Disease of Groundnut: Pathogenesis, Impact and Management Strategies

Groundnut is a vital soil seed crop, significantly contributes to global agricultural economics. However, its production is hampered by number of fungal diseases such as tikka disease. Tikka disease of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is caused by Cercospora arachidicola (early leaf spot) and Cercosporidium personatum (late leaf spot), possess significant threat to groundnut cultivating countries globally. It causes yield loss ranging from 15 to 70 % under severe infection. Current disease management strategies include cultural, chemical and physical practices. In addition to this, use of biological control agents and integrated disease management (IDM) strategies are also implemented by few farmers. Present disease management strategies seem to be not sufficient for complete control of this disease. However, challenges such as fungicide resistance and climate variability demand innovative and progressive preventive measures. Therefore, it is important to develop additional, advanced and more improved disease management strategies via the implementation of sustainable approaches. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the epidemiology, symptoms, impact of tikka disease on groundnut yield and recent research findings on the management of the disease. Hence, this review explains that to prevent commercial loss caused due to tikka disease of groundnut, our future research must focused on developing disease resistant groundnut cultivars, more improved biological control agents and sustainable disease management strategies to ensure groundnut productivity and food security.