An overview of the current status of Ganoderma basal stem rot and its management in a large plantation group in Malaysia.

Incluye referencias bibliográficas.

Ganoderma basal stem rot is now a serious disease prevalent in all oil palm areas in Malaysia, irrespective of coastal, peat or inland soils. The disease is evidently spreading, although in general the incidence is still relatively low where sanitary measures against the disease have been undertaken. Infection of BSR appeared to advance faster in subsequent generations of oil palm planting. This is related to the larger amount of accumulated field inoculum from the previous crop, but there is also a possibility of evolution of more virulent strains of the pathogen. The matting system of G. boninense strongly favours outcrossing and this provides a possible mechanism for the selection of pathogen virulence. The current approach in managing the disease primarily aims at minimising incidence and mitigating impact of the disease. A very important activity is the destruction of disease inoculum sources during replanting. This measure is effective in containing the disease in new replants a very low levels. However, in practice this is often not adequately implemented, resulting in serious re-infection of new planting. The introduction of a certification scheme to ensure compliance with the best practices towards minimising Ganoderma inoculum as stipulated in the planting policy helps alleviate this problem. Biological control using antagonistic fungi such as Trichoderma spp. appeared promising but still requires further development especially in delivery system and ensuring sustainability and persistency of the antagonists in the oil palm rhizosphere. It is envisaged that the use of Ganoderma tolerant planting materials as a component of integrated disease management would be more realistic and could be achieved sooner than expected with the rapid advance of molecular technology and oil palm in vitro propagation techniques.