Handbook of plant disease identification and management

Plant diseases are becoming major constraints in agricultural production with increases in the number of hybrid and genetically modified cultivators who are focused on increasing yield. Climatic changes are also creating favorable conditions for most of the diseases. At the same time, there are many reports of new pathogens that can cause considerable damage to agricultural crop. Disease identification plays a key role in overall diseases management. One disease may show different symptoms; on the contrary, different diseases may show same kind of symptoms. Scope and depth of our knowledge of plant and crop physiology are rapidly expanding, and plant physiologists are continuously making new discoveries. The Handbook of Plant Disease Identification and Management will be a plant pathology and diseases related work, which will center around the topic of crop diseases. This handbook will provide fundamental knowledge about how to identify the disease, how to track disease development, and IPM (Integrated pest management) by using diverse ways like chemical, biological, and physical methods. It is a unique, comprehensive, and complete collection of the topics in plant pathology to serve as an all-inclusive resource and up-to-date reference to effectively cover the information relevant to plant diseases. The sociology of crop pathology is discussed in this handbook as well as a review of a great variety of techniques for the diagnosis of crop disease, losses due to crop diseases, and theory behind the disease management. It also explores topics on how society is constraining the possibilities for management; management of diseases through changing the environment; biological control of crop diseases; weed management through pathogens; and the epidemiologic and genetic concepts of managing host genes.