Management of Plant Diseases
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Date
2020
Authors
Namikoye, Everlyne Samita
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Most serious diseases of crop plants appear on a few plants in an area year after
year, spread rapidly, and are difficult to cure after they have begun to develop. Therefore, almost all control methods are aimed at protecting plants from becoming diseased rather than at curing them after they have become diseased. Few infectious plant diseases can be controlled satisfactorily in the field by therapeutic means. The various control methods can be classified as regulatory, cultural, biological, physical, and chemical, depending on the nature of the agents employed. Regulatory control measures aim at excluding a pathogen from a host or from a certain geographic area. Most cultural control methods aim at helping plants avoid contact with a pathogen, creating environmental conditions unfavorable to the pathogen or avoiding favorable ones, and eradicating or reducing the amount of a pathogen in a plant, a field, or an area. Most biological and some cultural control methods aim at improving the resistance of the host or favoring microorganisms antagonistic to the pathogen. A new type of biological control involves the transfer of genetic material (DNA) into plants and the generation of transgenic plants that exhibit resistance to a certain disease(s). Finally, physical and chemical methods aim at protecting the plants from pathogen inoculum that has arrived, or is likely to arrive, or curing an infection that is already in progress.
Description
A Chapter in KST 110 Module