Crop Diseases

This important and comprehensive book is designed to provide information on crop diseases and how to manage those diseases. Covering a multitude of crops and diseases, the book presents integrated approaches on managing diseases that affect such crops as: Cereal and crop plants, such as maize, pigeon pea, chickpeas, and urd/mung beans Oil seed crops, such as groundnut, soybeans, and linseed Horticultural crops, such as citrus, onions, garlic, cucurbitaceae, Colocasia, roses, Stevia rebaudiana, betelvine, jute, and sunhemp The book thoroughly covers the symptoms, causes, disease cycles, and management approaches for many diseases that affect useful agricultural crops. Edited by two professors and researchers with years of experience in teaching on crop diseases, this book is suitable for students in agricultural sciences and helps to cover the recently modified course curricula in India that increases coverage of crop diseases. Crop Diseases and Their Management is also a handy reference for plant protection experts, vegetable specialists, horticultural officers, and extension workers.

Plant diseases are among the important factors that are responsible for causing yield loss in crop production. The loss due to diseases alone is estimated to be around 26 per cent. Diseases may attack at any stage of the standing crop, from seedlings till maturity of the crop. They may affect different parts of the plants, such as foliage, stem, root, flowers or seed and cause various types of symptoms, while the diseases such as wilt affect the entire plant. All these ultimately result in the reduction of yield and poor quality of the produce. Further, many pathogens continue to attack the stored grains and stored produce, and cause spoilage. To save the crops from diseases caused by pathogens and thereby to increase crop production, it is imminent that diseases have to be controlled by any means. To adopt various strategies for the control of pathogens, one should have some basic knowledge about the symptoms produced by the pathogens, their life cycle, mode of survival and spread, and the stage at which the host is most vulnerable to attack by the pathogens. Most of the cultivated varieties of different crops are susceptible to one disease or another, while some others are susceptible to many diseases. Even resistant cultivars of some of the crop species may become susceptible to some specific diseases in course of time as a result of development of new physiologic races of the pathogen by hybridization or natural mutation or when the environmental conditions are highly favorable for the pathogen and not quite favorable for the host. In this book the authors have given a detailed account of the major diseases of important field crops and horticultural crops, and their management. The text is substantiated with many hand-drawn illustrations, which are of excellent quality and in fact it is the highlight of the book. A on important edible mushrooms commonly grown in India, methods of cultivation of different mushrooms, diseases and pests attacking mushroom beds and mushrooms is also included in the book. This may be quite useful to emerging entrepreneur The book, which has been compiled as per the undergraduate syllabus of agricultural institutions, will also be of use to postgraduate students and to those working in the department of agriculture.

This comprehensive and uptodate text is designed to provide information to the readers on all important aspects of plant pathology in a single volume. The information on modern areas like Disease diagnosis, Disease forecasting, Biological control, Epidemiology and Biotechnology in disease resistance and safe use of pesticides have been covered, giving most recent concepts. The text is illustrated with flow diagrams, line diagrams, photographs and tables for quick and easy understanding of the subject.

With contributions from more than 30 internationally renowned experts, this book combines coverage of theory with coverage of global practices. Highlighting the day-to-day challenges of organic crop management for cost-effective real-world application, the book explores the biological control of diseases in 12 major crops. It focuses on the use of host plant resistance through transgenics and induced systemic resistance as a part of biological control. Topics covered include the role of biocontrol agents for signalling resistance, effective ecofriendly alternative to combat bacterial, fungal, and viral infestation, and transgenic crops in disease management.

The development of a crop, and therefore its health, is always the result of interplay between biological and environmental factors, as influenced by human agency. In other words, crop health is a highly complex affair. This book is concerned with only one group of agents affecting crop health, the pathogens, and not with animal pests or direct effects of physiological or weather factors. Even within this one group, however, the interaction of causal agents with environmental and biotic factors is highly complex. No less complex is the effect of cultural practices on the crop and its health. There is probably no major practice that does not affect diverse facets of crop growth, which in turn affects crop/pathogen relationships. Thus tillage se quentially affects depth and rate of root development, hence nutrient uptake, hence general plant size and habit as well as crop climate and crop susceptibility. Irri gation affects all these parameters, and facilitates crop growth under diverse macro climatic conditions, with all the ensuing implications for disease development. In this book an attempt is made to superimpose one set of complexities, the cul tural practices, on another such set, crop health. This may seem overambitious, not to say foolhardy, unless we remember that it has been done by farmers, consciously or unconsciously, ever since the beginnings of agriculture. We are here chiefly try ing to rationalize traditional practices, review modern research on the development of further practices, and assess the place of the latter in integrated disease control.

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of plant diseases, including pathogens, plant-pathogen interactions, their management, and future perspectives. Plant diseases limit potential crop production and are responsible for considerable losses in agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Our global food production systems are under increasing pressure from global trade, climate change and urbanization. If we could alleviate the losses due to plant diseases, we would be able to produce roughly 20% more food - enough to feed the predicted world population in 2050. Co-authored by a group of international teachers of plant pathology who have collaborated for many years, the book gives expert and seamless coverage. Plant Pathology and Plant Diseases: Addresses major advances in plant-pathogen interactions, classification of plant pathogens, and the methods of managing or controlling disease Is relevant for a global audience; it covers many examples of diseases with an impact worldwide but with an emphasis on disease of particular importance in a temperate context Features over 400 striking figures and colour photographs It is suitable for graduate students and advanced undergraduates studying plant pathology, biology, agriculture and horticulture.