Abstract
Citrus occupies a prominent position in fruit industry all over the world. In Pakistan, it ranks first in terms of area, production
and export among other fruits. The quality fruit production is under serious threat due to a number of diseases and disorders.
Among diseases, citrus decline is of significant importance. As no systematic information is available on the prevalence of this
disease, therefore, surveys were conducted to observe disease incidence, severity and percent disease index of citrus decline in
six tehsils of district Sargodha. Maximum mean disease incidence was recorded in tehsil Sargodha (94.06%) followed by tehsil
Shahpur (93.33%) while it was the minimum in tehsil Sillanwali (35.73%). Similarly, mean disease severity was found to be
the maximum in tehsil Sargodha (1.47) followed by tehsil Bhalwal and was the minimum in Sillanwali (0.64). As regards
disease index, it was recorded to the maximum in tehsil Sargodha (29.41%) followed by tehsil Shahpur (26.75%). On the other
hand, minimum disease index was again observed in tehsil Sillanwali (10.36%). It is, therefore, concluded that decline is
widely prevalent in citrus orchards in district Sargodha and warrants strict control measures to abate yield losses.
