Role of abiotic factors on the severity of stripe rust of wheat

During last decades, stripe rust has emerged as a major disease of wheat causing considerable yield loss in northern western plain and northern hill zones of India. Considering significant impact of the disease on wheat crop, field experiments were conducted during rabi seasons of 2013 and 2015 to evaluate the effect of different abiotic factors in different varieties (HD 2967, RSP 561, Agra Local and PBW 343) on the progress and spread of the disease as well as development of a predictive model to predict the disease initiation and spread in the field. Statistical analysis of data revealed that existing of low temperature (10–12 °C), high relative humidity (90%) along with intermittent rainfall was found conducive for disease onset. Thermic variables (atmospheric, canopy and soil temperature) along with age of crop in the selected varieties showed significant positive correlation with disease severity. Step-wise regression showed high R² of 0.919, 0.885, 0.967 and 0.956 for the predicative model of stripe rust in RSP 561, HD 2967, Agra Local and PBW 343, respectively.