Ecofriendly management practices to combat mycotoxins contamination in maize

Abstract

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus and Fusarium species are toxic to humans and domestic animals. About seven seed treating fungicides namely captan, carbendazin, azoxystrobin, tebuconazole, trifloxystrobin, mancozeb 50 per cent + carbendazim 25 per cent WS (Sprint) and trifloxystrobin 25 per cent and tebuconazole 50 per cent (Nativo 75 WG) Among the seed treating fungicides tested against the seed-borne A. flavus and F. verticillioides in growth chamber conditions, seed treated with captan has recorded maximum germination (66.67%), maximum shoot length and shoot weight of 41.00 cm and 4.8 g, respectively. The management results revealed that the minimum per cent infection was noticed in neem cake application at 250 kg ha−1 + 250 kg FYM enriched with consortium of Trichoderma harzianum at 2.5 kg ha−1 and Pseudomonas fluorescens at 2.5 kg ha−1 followed by foliar spray with carbendazim (0.1%) at 60 days after sowing (DAS) (4.91) along with maximum yield and benefit cost ratio of 60.59 q ha−1, 3.34 and 57.61 q ha−1, 3.15 in first and second circumstances, respectively.