CROP PROTECTION

NIDA B. RATILLA
BISU-Bilar
 Crop Protection: Definitions
• 6. field of study that deals with facts, rules, and
procedures of protecting crops from the harmful
effects of some ecological, biotic and abiotic
factors.

• as a farm operation is an act or effect of

safeguarding crops from detrimental factors either
by preventing, controlling them or minimizing their
effects.
 Disciplines in Crop Protection

• Entomology 1-4
• Plant Pathology
• Weed Science
• Nematology
• Integrated Pest Management
• Vertebrate Pest Control
 Definitions
Entomology- branch of zoology concerned with the
study of insects.

5. Plant Pathology – study of plant diseases and

their control.

Weed Science - the study of vegetation

management in agriculture, aquatics, horticulture,
right-of-way, essentially anywhere plants need to be
managed.
 Definitions
Nematology- scientific study of nematode worms.

Integrated Pest Management- is a strategy or plan that

utilizes various tactics or control methods (i.e. cultural, biological and
chemical means) in a harmonious and compatible way.

Vertebrate Pest- includes birds, mammals, or reptiles

that cause damage to agricultural crops.

Pest - an organism that causes economic or aesthetic

damage to humans or their property.
Role of Crop Protection in increasing food
supply
• ever-growing world population expected to grow to
nearly 9 billion by 2050
• 20-40% of the world's potential crop production is
already lost annually because of the effects of pests
• crop protection products used in stored products can
also prolong the viable life of produce, prevent huge
post-harvest losses from pests and diseases, and
protect food -FUMIGATION
• The crop protection industry’s primary aim is to enable
farmers to grow an abundant supply of food in a safe
manner and prevent costs from increasing.
Etymology: Greek

• “Pathos” –suffering 7.
• “Logos” – to study
Plant pathology
The study of the organisms and environmental
factors that cause disease in plants;
of the mechanisms by which these factors induce
disease in plants;
and of the methods of preventing or controlling
disease and reducing the damage it causes.
The science and art of plant pathology
• As a science
▪ It looks into the characteristics of diseases, their
causes, plant-pathogen interactions, factors
affecting disease development in individual plants
and in populations and the various means of
controlling diseases.

▪ As an art
▪ Deals with application of the knowledge gained
from studying the science.
▪ Diagnosis, assessment, forecasting, control measures
Economic importance of plant diseases

▪ Plant disease epidemics caused human

sufferings, deaths and upheavals.
▪ Potato late blight disease – caused famine & death
in Ireland
▪ Coffee rust
▪ Cause economic losses
a. cadang-cadang of coconut
b. Downy mildew of corn
c. Rice tungro virus
d. Coffee rust
e. Citrus decline
 Rice Tungro Virus

Coconut Cadang-cadang Potato Late Blight Disease

Coffee Rust

Citrus Decline

Corn Downy Mildew

Types of crop losses 8-10

1. Reduction in yield
▪ Leafspots/blights reduce photosynthetic capacity of
plants
▪ Root pathogens
▪ Fruit rots and fruit spots – reduce quantity of
harvestable and marketable fruits
2. Deterioration during storage, marketing or
transport
3. Reduction in quality
▪ Citrus fruits with scabs, moldy cereals, reduced strength
& undesirable discoloration in wood pulp, poor
germination of infected seeds
Types of crop losses

4. Losses due to contamination with toxins

▪ Aflatoxin- Apergillus flavus – carcinogenic to animals & man
▪ Found in: corn, sorghum, copra, root crops

▪ Ochratoxin – A. ochraceous – causes cancer of the liver

▪ Yellow rice toxins – from Penicillium spp. caused several deaths in

Japan

▪ Estrogenic factor in corn: produced by Fusarium graminarium;

causes testes of young male swine to have atrophy and uteri of
female pigs to enlarge and abort

▪ Fumonisins – Fusarium spp. in corn grains; caused esopahageal

cancer in man and toxic to animals like horses
Types of crop losses

5. Losses due to predisposition of host to attack

by other pathogens
▪ Nematode injuries on roots- port of entry for other pathogens
▪ Leaf pathogens weaken plants which can become a host susceptible to root-
rotting pathogens

6. Losses from increased cost of production and

handling
▪ Cost of disease control
▪ Cost of culling disease commodities for marketing and
processing
▪ Infected and stained wood chips need longer time to bleach
to obtain white paper product.
 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
IN PLANT PATHOLOGY
• Pathogen- any agent (biotic or abiotic) that
causes a disease.
• Parasite- is an organism which depends wholly or
partly on another living organism for its food. Most
parasites are pathogens.
• An obligate parasite is an organism that is
restricted to subsist on living organisms and
attacks only living tissues.
• Facultative parasite is an organism that may resort
to parasitic activity, but does not absolutely rely on
any host for completion of its life cycle.
 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
IN PLANT PATHOLOGY
• Saprophyte is an organism that lives on dead or
in organic matter.
• A facultative saprophyte – an organism which
has the ability to become saprophyte but is
ordinarily a parasite.
• Host - plant that is being attacked by a parasite.
• Suscept - a plant that is susceptible to a disease
whether or not the pathogen is parasitic.
• Pathogenicity- the capacity of a pathogen to
cause disease whereas pathogenesis refers to
disease development in the plant.
 DEFINITION AND TERMINOLOGY
IN PLANT PATHOLOGY

• Pathogenesis- disease development in plant

• Virulence- refers to the quantitative amount of
disease that an isolate of a given pathogen can
cause in a group of plants in terms of size of
lesions, for example.
• Aggressiveness – measures the rate at which
virulence is expressed by a given pathogenic
isolate.
• Disease Resistance- the inherent ability of an
organism to overcome in any degree the effects of
a pathogen.