Saifeldeen A. Abdalla¹, Ahmed M. El Naim^2,, Marmar A. El Siddig³, Adil Ali El Hussein³, Elshiekh A. Ibrahim²

The use of chemical control causing negative effects non-target environmental impacts and development of pesticide resistance to applied agent, The great interest in eco-friendly and sustainable agriculture, push towards gradually shifting to biological control instead of dependence on chemical. The Fusarium wilt is biotic stress that constraint the production and expansion of chickpea crop in Sudan. The aim of this study was to use rhizobacteria as bio control agent against chickpea Fusarium wilt. Eighteen soil samples taken from chickpea rhizosphere collected from six locations in central and Northern Sudan (three samples from each location). The chickpea rhizospheric bacteria were recovered from the 18 soil samples and their antagonistic activity against the most virulent FOC isolate was evaluated in vitro (using 76 rhizobacterial isolates) and in planta (using the ten most potential rhizobacterial isolates). 31 out of 76 isolates (nominated as SA1, SA2…., SA31) were considered as virulent bacterial isolates, shown clear inhibition zones against the most virulent FOC isolate (FOCS9). The widest inhibition zone diameter (25 mm) was recorded for isolate SA1 (No. 1) and the lowest zones (13.0 and 13.7 mm) were recorded for isolates SA30 (No. 30) and SA31 (no. 31), respectively. Generally, the in planta application of rhizobacterial isolates as biological control agents reduced the disease incidence compared with the controls.

diseases incidence, Fusarium oxysporum, Cicer arietinum, antagonistic bacteria