AGRICULTURE - COMPLETED | ||||||||
Sandalwood
Spike Disease |
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Sandal, the pride of Karnataka's forest wealth, is a perennial plant and
exploitation of the plant for wood and oil is of great commercxial importance.
The specie is a native of the southern part of India and nearly 80% of sandal
oil production in India is in Karnataka. However, sandal trees are susceptible to a serious disease, known as the spike disease, which was first observed in 1888. The disease causes an extreme smalling of leaves with sprouting of auxiliary buds, resulting in the certain death of infected trees. Although considerable research has been done, practical control measures are not available. The casual agent and mode of transmission of the disease are not established although some research shows that the causal agent might be a mycoplasma, and certain inspect species have been incriminated as vectors of the disease. The major lines along which the research was carried out are indicated below:
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