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In vitro evaluation was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of fungicides and biocontrol agents against Fusarium wilt of Safflower caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. carthami at the Department of Plant Pathology, College of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, during 2021. The research was laid out in a Complete Randomized Design, and eight treatments of fungicides were evaluated by following the Poisoned Food Technique, and four treatments of biocontrol agents, which were received from the Institute of Organic Farming, were evaluated by following the dual inoculation method against F. oxysporum f. sp. carthami under in vitro conditions. The results revealed that among all the fungicides evaluated, Carboxin 37.5 % + thiram 37.5 % and Carbendazim 25 % + mancozeb 50 % inhibited the mycelial growth completely at all the tested concentrations viz., 500 ppm, 1000 ppm, 2000 ppm and 3000 ppm, followed by Tebuconazole 2 DS (93.57 %) and Carbendazim 50 WP (92.33 %). Among the different concentrations of fungicides evaluated against F. oxysporum f. sp. carthami, the least inhibition of the mycelial growth was observed at 500 ppm (87.39 %), and the significantly highest inhibition was recorded at 3000 ppm (91.44 %), followed by 2000 ppm (89.89 %) and 1000 ppm (87.39 %). In comparison with all the concentrations, the least inhibition of mycelial growth of the fungus was observed in the case of Captan 50 WP (68.16 %) at 500 ppm. Among all the tested biocontrol agents, highest inhibition of mycelial growth of pathogen was found in case of Trichoderma harzianum (76.60 %) followed by Neofusicoccum parvum (71.39 %) and Pseudomonas fluorescens (69.10 %) and least inhibition of mycelial growth of the pathogen was observed in case of Bacillus subtilis (64.84 %) as compared to pathogen in control (i.e., where no antagonists were inoculated with pathogen) which has covered the maximum radial growth of 90 mm.

Keywords: Biocontrol agents, Fungicides, Fusarium, In vitro, Safflower, Wilt.