Assessment of yield performance of elephant foot yam varieties against natural infection of Dasheen mosaic virus under field conditions.

The agricultural productivity of elephant foot yam or Amorphophallus paeoniifolius has been severely hampered due to the infectious mosaic disease caused by Dasheen mosaic virus (DsMV), a member of the genus Potyvirus. In this study, two-year field experiments were conducted at ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala during 2019 and 2020 to assess the yield performance of five varieties of elephant foot yam viz., Gajendra, Sree Padma, Vegetable and fruit Promotion Council Keralam (VFPCK) local, Peerumade local, Sree Athira subsequent to natural infection by DsMV. Each experiment was carried out in Randomised Block Design with three replications. Double Antibody Sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (DAS-ELISA) was employed for the serological detection of DsMV in elephant foot yam crops. Our results showed that the corm diameter, mean yield per plant and estimated yield were significantly reduced in varieties viz., Gajendra, Sree Padma and Sree Athira due to DsMV incidence. There was no significant difference in the number of corms in all the varieties in response to DsMV infection. Furthermore, the mosaic disease caused significant shrinkage in the canopy spread in all the varieties of elephant foot yam and a drastic reduction in the plant height of var. Gajendra as well as var. Sree Padma. Pseudostem girth was found to be significantly reduced in varieties viz., Gajendra, Sree Padma, Sree Athira and Peerumade local. The yield losses attributed to the mosaic disease incidence by Dasheen mosaic virus in the five varieties of elephant foot yam was recorded in the range of 23.51 -55.07%.