Ascochyta blight of chickpea

Ascochyta rabiei Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr. (sexual stage Didymella rabiei (Kovatsch.) Arx) · formerly or also: Didymella rabiei, Mycosphaerella rabiei, Phoma rabiei

rabia del garbanzo · Spanish, Spain and Latin America
nohut antraknozu · Turkish, Türkiye
झुलसा रोग (jhulsa rog) · Hindi, North India

Ascochyta blight is the most destructive disease of chickpea worldwide. It causes round, tan spots with rings of tiny black dots on leaves, pods and stems; stems are girdled and break, and whole plants collapse in patches that look scorched. In cool, wet seasons it can destroy entire crops. The fungus is carried in seed and survives on chickpea stubble, so clean seed, rotation and resistant varieties are central to control.

Chickpea plant with Ascochyta blight: brown lesions on stems and dead leaflets. Photo: Weidong Chen, USDA ARS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Type: Fungal disease · Fungus (ascomycete)
Classification: Fungi › Dothideomycetes › Pleosporales › Didymellaceae
Main crops: Chickpea
Found in: South Asia, West Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean, North America, Oceania
Chemical groups: FRAC M05, FRAC M03, FRAC 3, FRAC 11 (mode-of-action groups, not products)
Last reviewed: 2026-10-20

What causes ascochyta blight of chickpea?

Ascochyta blight of chickpea is caused by Ascochyta rabiei Ascochyta rabiei (Pass.) Labr. (sexual stage Didymella rabiei (Kovatsch.) Arx), a fungus (ascomycete) (order Pleosporales, family Didymellaceae).

Older or alternative scientific names: Didymella rabiei, Mycosphaerella rabiei, Phoma rabiei.

Where it occurs

Found in nearly all chickpea-growing regions: South Asia, West Asia and North Africa, the Mediterranean, East Africa, Australia, and North America (the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian prairies).

Region	Status
South Asia	Present; severe in cool, wet winters in the north-west
West Asia, North Africa and the Mediterranean	Widespread; major
North America	Widespread in chickpea areas
Oceania	Widespread in Australian chickpea

Symptoms and identification of ascochyta blight of chickpea

The organism

A fungus that forms tiny dark flask-shaped fruiting bodies (pycnidia) arranged in rings within lesions. In wet weather they ooze spores that are spread by rain splash. Where both mating types occur, a sexual stage on overwintered stubble releases airborne spores that can travel several kilometres.

Signs in the crop, stage by stage

Crop stage	What you see
Seedlings	Brown lesions at the stem base of seedlings grown from infected seed; seedlings collapse.
Leaves and stems	Round to oval tan or brown spots with dark borders and concentric rings of black dots; stem lesions girdle and break stems; patches of dead, scorched-looking plants.
Pods and seed	Round lesions with black dots on pods; shrivelled, discoloured seeds that carry the fungus.

Disease cycle of ascochyta blight of chickpea

Life cycle of Ascochyta blight of chickpea — diagram drawn by Laisha from the stages below. Durations depend on temperature.

Infected seed and chickpea stubble carry the fungus between seasons. Rain splashes spores from infected seedlings or stubble onto nearby plants, and each rain event can start a new cycle of spread. Sexual spores from stubble can blow into new fields. Pod infection late in the season leads to infected seed.

Stage	Duration	Notes
Survival on seed and stubble	Between seasons (stubble for 1-2 years or more)	Main sources.
Infection	After leaves stay wet for several hours	Cool, wet weather.
Lesions with pycnidia	About 5-10 days	Spores spread by rain splash.
Pod and seed infection	Late season	Carries the fungus to the next crop.

Temperature

Most severe at about 15-25 °C with frequent rain or long periods of leaf wetness.

Generations

Many cycles in wet seasons, linked to rain events.

Conditions that favour it

Infected seed, chickpea stubble from previous seasons nearby, cool and wet weather especially at flowering and podding, dense canopies, and susceptible varieties.

Economic threshold level (ETL)

There is no numeric economic threshold; protection is preventive, with fungicide timing linked to the first lesions and forecast rain in susceptible varieties.

Thresholds are local. They depend on crop price, control cost, variety and natural-enemy activity, so use the figure your local extension service publishes where one exists.

Damage and yield loss from ascochyta blight of chickpea

Losses range from slight to complete crop failure in cool, wet seasons; infected seed lowers quality and spreads the disease.

Monitoring

Inspect crops within a few weeks of emergence and after each rain event, looking for lesions with rings of black dots.
Check patches first, especially near last year's chickpea stubble.
Test seed lots for infection before planting where testing is available.
Follow local disease forecasts or rainfall records, since spread happens with each rain event.

How to control ascochyta blight of chickpea (integrated management)

Control works best as a sequence: prevent, monitor, then act only when a threshold or a risk forecast says so, using the least disruptive option that works.

Cultural control

Plant tested, disease-free seed treated with a fungicide seed dressing.
Rotate chickpea with other crops, leaving at least three to four years between chickpea crops in the same field, and plant away from last year's chickpea stubble.
Bury or remove infected stubble where erosion risk allows; control volunteer chickpea.
Avoid excessively dense stands and very early planting in high-risk areas.

Biological control

Some biological agents have reduced Ascochyta blight in trials, but none is reliable alone.

Host resistance

Varieties with moderate resistance are available and greatly reduce the number of sprays needed; the fungus can adapt, so ratings should be checked each year.

Chemical control of ascochyta blight of chickpea — by mode-of-action group only

Laisha names chemical options only by their resistance-committee mode-of-action group (IRAC for insects, mites and nematodes, FRAC for fungi, oomycetes and bacteria, HRAC for weeds), never by active ingredient or product. What is registered differs by country and changes over time; the label and your local plant-protection authority decide what may be used, on which crop, at what rate and with what pre-harvest interval.

Seed treatments reduce seed-borne infection; foliar protectant fungicides are applied before rain in susceptible varieties, and systemic products after infection events. What is registered differs by country and changes over time; follow the label and your local plant-protection authority.

Scheme	Group	Mode of action	Notes
FRAC	M05	Chloronitriles (multi-site)	Protectant before rain.
FRAC	M03	Dithiocarbamates and relatives (multi-site)	Protectant.
FRAC	3	Demethylation inhibitors (DMI)	Systemic.
FRAC	11	Quinone outside inhibitors (QoI)	Resistance reported in some regions; use in mixtures.

Resistance management

Base programmes on multi-site protectants, alternate single-site groups, and use resistant varieties to reduce spray numbers.

Look-alikes and how to tell them apart

Botrytis grey mould of chickpea — Grey fuzzy mould on flowers and stems in dense, humid canopies, without rings of black dots.
Fusarium wilt of chickpea — Wilting with internal brown discoloration of the stem, no leaf or pod spots.
Frost or herbicide damage — Uniform damage across the field without lesions containing black dots.

Host range

Chickpea is the only important host; a few wild Cicer species and some other legumes can be infected in tests.

What is still uncertain

The importance of the airborne sexual stage differs between regions depending on which mating types are present.
Pathogen aggressiveness on resistant varieties is changing in some areas.

Grow guides for its host crops

How to grow the crop well is the first line of defence. Laisha's free grow guides cover each crop from sowing to harvest:

How to grow Chickpea

Not sure this is what you are seeing?Ask Laisha: describe the symptoms or send a photo, and get a reasoned first read with what to check next — for your crop, your stage and your region.Ask Laisha

Sources

Mycosphaerella rabiei (chickpea ascochyta blight) datasheet — CABI Compendium. https://doi.org/10.1079/cabicompendium.35320
Ascochyta rabiei (ASCORA) — EPPO Global Database. https://gd.eppo.int/taxon/ASCORA
A review of Ascochyta blight of chickpea — Tropical Pest Management (Taylor & Francis). https://doi.org/10.1080/09670878209370675
Integrated management of Ascochyta blight on chickpea germplasm in Pakistan — Çukurova University Journal of Agricultural and Food Sciences. https://doi.org/10.36846/cjafs.2022.73

Written by Laisha from the sources above, in its own words. This page is general reference, not a prescription: confirm identification locally and follow the label and your plant-protection authority.