Arunachal: Expert’s study sought on possible reason for dieback or death of Jack fruit trees from Siang belt
Pasighat – ( By- Maksam Tayeng ) The gradual dieback of the canopy or wilting with tree death in many cases, the jackfruit trees are gradually depleting from the Siang belt of Arunachal Pradesh with loss of production in most of the trees which are not death yet. The gradual deaths of jack trees have drawn the attention of the locals here who have wondered about the gradual depletion of jack trees.
Raising concern over the gradual but continuous death or depletion of Jack trees from the region, one Tangiat Taggu, a senior citizen from Jarkong village, Pasighat here in East Siang District have appealed the concern department of horticulture, government of Arunachal Pradesh and other researchers to find out the cause of the death so that further death or its depletion could be checked.
“The dwindling situations of Jack trees in the Siang belt after the year 1990 have been observed by us as there is less fruits in Jack trees and before that the Jack trees right from Sika Bamin in Siille Oyan circle to Tuting and Namsing circle to Singga was bearing abundance of fruits. But sadly Jack trees are bearing very less fruits and depleting gradually”, added Taggu.
If this situation continues then name and photos of this valuable tree may vanish from Siang belts like Esong (a cane species) which was once found in mountains. I therefore request the Horticulture department to do a research on the possible reason of death of jack trees so that further but gradual death of this kind of the fruit to is checked.
Meanwhile, in the late 1990’s a decline syndrome emerged in jackfruit orchards in the Eastern Visayas region of the Philippines south-east asia. Symptoms included trunk cankers, wilting and dieback of the canopy and, in many cases, tree death.
The decline resulted in significant yield losses for farmers. A survey was conducted to assess disease incidence and to identify the causal organism. Fifty two percent of farms surveyed had a disease incidence greater than 50 %. On some farms 100 % of trees were affected.
Healthy jackfruit seedlings, detached leaves and fruit inoculated with Phytophthora isolates expressed similar symptoms to those observed in the field. Based on morphological and molecular characteristics the pathogen was identified as Phytophthora palmivora.
