FUNGAL DISEASES OF PAPAYA AND THEIR MANAGEMENT

Papaya (Carica papaya L.) is the most delicious fruit grown widely under tropical and sub-tropical climates. The fruit has very thin skin and thus rough handling leads to heavy losses due to a number of rots caused by fungi and bacteria. The commercial papaya production has been hampered worldwide due to high susceptibility of the crop to various fungal, viral and bacterial diseases. Important diseases in the field and storage, affecting papaya are powdery mildew, Phytophthora root rot, anthracnose, stem end rot, black spot disease and virus diseases like papaya ring spot and papaya leaf curl. Among these diseases, anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum gloeosporioides Penz. (Penz. and Sacc.) is the most serious disease affecting to the ripened fruit. The disease is prevalent wherever papaya is grown (Rawal, 1993) and becomes more prominent during marketing and at consumer level.