Garlic to the rescue

Actually, old myths like that one are usually based on a grain of truth. Garlic has for centuries been used by people all over the world as a key ingredient in all sorts of home remedies--in addition, of course, to its usefulness in the culinary arts.

According to S.D. Singh, Senior Scientist (Crop Protection), it also works against plant disease. Singh used a spray made from garlic extract in greenhouse and field experiments at ICRISAT Asia Center with astounding success against ergot, a deadly fungal disease that wreaks havoc on sorghum crops in India and Africa. Plant breeders have thus far had little success developing cultivars resistant to ergot.

The possibility of using garlic as a fungicide is welcome news to farmers and environmentalists concerned with overuse of dangerous chemicals to control plant diseases, since it poses no danger to spray operators or consumers.

The main problem with garlic extract is that rain washes it off the plants. Also, preparing the extract is hard work. It takes 40 kg of garlic to create 500 liters of spray--sufficient to spray a hectare of sorghum. The cost of garlic is not low, but it is cheaper than the most effective fungicides, says Singh. And if a technology can be developed that reduces the labor required to prepare the extract, adoption will be widespread.

(ICRISAT press release)