Disease management in staple crops: A bacteriological approach

Abstract

Disease causes severe economic losses to agricultural crops. The loss due to disease should be controlled due to the rapid rise in demand of food. In recent years, biological control of plant pathogens has received increasing attention as a promising supplement or alternative to chemical control. Biological control agent (BCA) inhibits the disease by using degradative enzymes, antibiotics, competition for nutrients and niches (CNN), siderophores, biosurfactants, detoxification and degradation of virulence factors of the pathogen, and by induced systemic resistance (ISR). Many bacterial species were found having disease-suppressive property in rice and maize along with the other agricultural crops, but Pseudomonas and Bacillus are the prominent one. There has been very limited work done on the biological means of disease management as compared to the tremendous unexplored biocontrol resources. An integrated rigorous research and investment in the field of disease management will bring a new era of biological control of disease management in staple crop plants.