In 2019, farmers in Haryana’s Hisar, Bhiwani and Rewari districts witnessed strange black stripes on the leaves of their millet crops. Such markings were never seen before by the farmers. Within days, the stripes took over the entire plant and turned it dry and brittle.
The cultivators perceived it to be an unprecedented disease and informed their local krishi vigyan kendras (farm science centre) about the black rot in their millet crops. Then, the following year, in 2020 when the COVID19 pandemic began, identical symptoms in the millet crops were reported again.
“For two years, we gathered information about the unprecedented symptoms observed in millet plants,” Vinod Malik, Assistant Professor at the Plant Pathology Department of the Hisar-based Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University told Gaon Connection.
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“After intense screening for morphological, pathogenic, biochemical and various other tests, it was revealed that the black rot is due to the bacteria which is found in human intestines,”the agriculture scientist added.
Malik further informed that the bacterium behind the infection is called Klebsiella aerogenes and speculated that it must have been transferred to millet crops via faecal matter.
The disease in millet crops has been named as ‘stem rot’. Interestingly, the bacterium which has infected the millet crops in Haryana is naturally found in the human intestines and usually doesn’t cause any disease in healthy persons.
‘Never reported before across the world’
Led by the assistant professor, a team of scientists from the Hisar-based agricultural institute reported their findings to the United States’ National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) which replied that such findings have not been reported before.
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“We then approached the American Phytopathological Society (APS) which is an international authority on plant diseases and new diseases are registered by it. We then got a confirmation that what we had found was actually a discovery. The APS not only recognised the disease but also published our report in its reputed journal,” Malik told Gaon Connection.
‘Treatment research underway’
Meanwhile, BR Kamboj, the vice-chancellor of the Hisar-based institute told Gaon Connection that there is no cure for the disease as of now and further research is ongoing.
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“The Corona pandemic has underlined the importance of identifying new diseases as soon as possible. I am glad that researchers from our institute have made a discovery and I appeal to them to work towards finding its cure,” Kamboj said.
The scientists, motivated by their discovery, are hopeful that they will soon find the cure of the disease in millet crops.
The states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat are the leading producers of millet in India.
