UNIT:1

1.1 DEFINATION, SCOPE AND IMPORTANCE:-

A. PLANT PATHOLOGY: Plant pathology is that branch of pathology which with plant
disease, their cause, condition and development mechanism, interaction, plant pathogen,
factor effecting plant disease, their consequences and their management before or after it
develops in plant.
B. ENTOMOLOGY: It is the science which deals about the insect, their effect,
environmental condition for insect development, factors affecting them, their damage
symptom on the plant, and their management before or after they appear in the field.
C. PLANT PROTECTION: It is a branch of agriculture which is associated with plant
pathology, entomology, weed science and their related discipline for optimum production
by minimizing the effect of insect, pathogen and weeds.
Simply plant protection can be defined as the science which helps to protect our
crop plants from external hazards like insect, disease, weed, rodent, disorder etc.
D. IMPORTANCE AND SCOPE OF PLANT PROTECTION:
i. It supports for optimum production by minimizing loss.
ii. It supports farmer for the development of healthy seed and plants.
iii. Helps in conservation and proper utilization of different resources like soil, water,
nutrient, air etc.
iv. It helps to minimize environmental pollution.
v. It helps to create surplus food and field production.
vi. Promotes natural greenery.
vii. Helps to control food starvation problem in the world.
viii. Supports in farmer income maximization.
ix. Helps to control field and storage loss.

1.2 CONCEPT OF:

1. MICROORGANISM: Microorganisms are smaller organisms which may be unicellular

or multicellular, plant or animal origin, which cannot be observed by naked eyes and lies
in the form of parasite, obligate parasite, saprophyte, facultative parasite, and facultative
saprophyte.
2. PATHOGEN: It is the microorganism like fungus, bacteria, virus, and nematode which
causes disease on the host after getting favorable condition.
3. PARASITE: A parasite is an organism which derives its food from living body or
organism either partially or totally. All pathogens are parasite but all parasites are not
pathogens.
4. OBLIGATE PARASITE: Those organisms which remain inactive until it finds a
suitable host and becomes active after getting host. Such nature of parasite is called
obligate parasite. E.g. Rust, Smut, Powdery mildew.
 5. SAPROPHYTE: Those organism which lives on dead or decayed matter is known as
saprophyte. E.g. Mushroom.
6. FACULTATIVE PARASITE: A facultative parasite is generally a saprophyte but has
the ability to parasitize living tissue under specific condition. E.g. Aspergillus
7. FACULTATIVE SAPROPHYTE: It is a parasite but has tendency to grow and
continue its life cycle on dead tissue like saprophyte. E.g. Phytophthorainfestanse.
8. PATHOGENESITY: It is the ability of a pathogen to cause a disease.
9. PATHOGENESIS: It is the process of disease development in the plants.
10. DISEASE: It is an effect or outcome due to the action of pathogen, environment either
individually or collectively.
For disease development there must be pathogen (aggressive or virulent), environment
(favorable) and host (susceptible).
Host (susceptible)

Disease Triangle

Pathogen (aggressive/virulent) Environment (favourable)

11. DISORDER: It is an effect in plant due to deficiency or excess of nutrients.

12. INSECT: These are those organisms which have segmented body, 3 pairs of legs and
have different characteristics, feeding habit and can damage field crops.
13. INSECTICIDES: These are those chemical compounds which are used in the field to
avoid, repel or to kill insect population which may damage our crop is called insecticide.
14. PEST: Those organism or animals which can destroy our crop are called pest.
15. PESTICIDED: These are those chemical compounds which are used to control the plant
pathogens.
16. WEEDS: Weeds are those plants which grow in the main crop field and compete for
light, nutrition and space with the main crop.
So weed can also be defined as the plants grown in the field other than the main crop in
the field.
17. RODENTS: Those animal which causes great destruction or damage during the
cultivation period is known as rodents. Generally rats and mice are common rodents of
the field crops.
1.3 CROP YIELD DEPLETION FACTOR:
The yields of the crops are greatly affected by various factors that may be biotic or
abiotic. Likewise there are other factors too like mineral, nutrients, temperature, and
management are also equally responsible for the depletion of crop yield.
 I. DISEASE: Disease is the condition in which plant loses its immunity power.
Depending upon the aggressiveness of the pathogen the damage of the disease is
different. The disease pathogen causes following condition and results in crop yield:
 The disease can be caused in any stage of the plant growth which can hamper
proper growth of crop.
 The disease can affect different parts of the plant.
 On severe infestation of disease it results to the death of the crop.
 The disease like fruit rots causes depletion in quality of fruit.
II. INSECT PEST: Insect is another great factor which causes crop yield depletion.
Around 25% of total crop yield reduction is caused by the insect pest. Different
types of insect attacks at different time so damage by insect high. The insects
damages the crop in the following way:
 The insect attack the plant in different growth stages.
 Some insects act as the vector for the transmission of viral disease.
 Insects feed seeds, different plant parts.
 Not only this some insects like fruit borer damages the entire fruit and
reduces yield.
 Some insects like cut worm attacks the root zone of the plant resulting death
of the plant.
 Sap sucking insects like hopper and aphids sucks the sap from the plant and
makes the plant week and distorted.
III. WEEDS: Weeds are the unwanted plants in the field except the main crop in the
field. According to Mani. et. Al. weed causes loss of around 30% of a food grain.
The weed in the field effect the crop in various ways like,
 It competes with the main crop for various things like sunlight, nutrient,
space etc.
 Not only this, weeds also act as the secondary host for the various disease
pathogens.
 They also provide the shelter for the different insects.
IV. RODENTS: Rodents are harmful to crop plants because they damage our crops in
different growth stages. Rodents maximally destruct in the cereals rather than other
crops. According to the FAO the damage of world food grain is 33 million metric
ton per year. The damage that deplete crop yield is;
 Rodents eat the seed sown in the field which creates low plant population in
the field.
 Rodents pick or eat the tender part of the germinating seedlings.
 They also damage the matured grain crops.
 Rodents also damage the crop in the stored condition.