Trichoderma has been studied widely. It has been found to play a major role in agricultural production. Around the world scientists and farmers have taken advantage of this knowledge. It is reported to improve plant growth of many crops such as tomato, lettuce, maize, beans, cabbage sugarcane and many more crops. There are two broad categories where Trichoderma plays a major role which is its use as a biofertilizer as well as a biofungicide. Its use as a biofertilizer has been aggravated by its ability to produce volatile compounds, ability to solubilize phosphates making them available to the plant. Moreover, farmers use it as a biofertilizer because it improves the uptake of macro and micro nutrients by the plant. As a biofungicide, Trichoderma is not to control many pathogens from various crops. This includes the control of pathogens such as Rhizoctonia, Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia, Sclerotinia, Phythium, Fusarium, Sclerotinia species and Galumannomyces. The mechanisms used by Trichoderma as a biofungicide includes, antibiosis, mycoparasitism, competitive advantage in the rhizosphere as well as priming of the crop self-defense mechanisms. The purpose of this book chapter is to highlight the importance of Trichoderma in agriculture as a biofertilizer and biofungicide.

Aim: The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate  the  assessment,  management  and referral practices of South African optometrists in  the  care  of  patients  with  diabetic  retinop-athy  (DR)  and  to  recommend  strategies  to improve  and  standardize  patient  management as required.  Methods:  The  study  design  incorporated quantitative,  qualitative  and  clinical  measures that were administered to fourteen experienced optometrists from the Durban area. The quan-titative measure, the questionnaire in appendix I, evaluated the optometrists’ management pro-tocols of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM).  These  included  the  optometrists’  referral  and co-management practices, their awareness and usage  of  appropriate  guidelines  in  the  man-agement  and  referral  of  these  patients,  their perceived levels of competence and confidence in their education, levels of service offered to the patients and finally the role of Continuous Professional  Development  (CPD).  This  self-report information was supplemented by a set of clinical measures where the study sample grad-ed levels of DR, chose appropriate management options  and  indicated  prognosis  for  disease progression based on a set of slides presented to  them.  Finally  the  fourteen  optometrists,  as well as two ophthalmologists, were interviewed using tailored, semi-structured interview sched-ules. These interviews were used to elaborate and corroborate information obtained from the other two research approaches.  Results:  Descriptive  analysis  was  used  to analyse  the  data  from  the  quantitative  and clinical  measures,  whilst  the  interviews  were analysed  thematically.  Although  86%  of  the sample routinely screened for ocular manifesta-tions of DM, there was no standardization in the criteria used by the fourteen optometrists. Only  15%  of  the  sample  reportedly  assessed their  patients  using  dilated  fundus  examina-tions  (DFE),  which  is  the  internationally  rec-ommended standard of care. The results of the clinical measures indicated that there was a lack of standardization in the management and refer-ral of patients with DR by the study sample, contrary  to  their  own  levels  of  confidence  in their  educational  competencies  regarding  DR and their perception of the level of service that they  offered  to  their  patients.  The  interviews with the optometrists provided crucial insights into this lack of standardised care of patients with DR, with the ophthalmologists confirming the  urgent  need  for  CPD  aimed  at  enhancing clinical  skills  and  ensuring  standardization  in the  management  and  referral  of  patients  with DR.  This finding was particularly relevant for co-management models.Conclusion: This  pilot  study  indicates  that the  performance  of  the  optometrists  (albeit  a relatively small group) in the assessment, man-agement and referral of patients with DR was inconsistent  and  not  in  keeping  with  interna-tionally recommended guidelines. It is recom-mended  that  CPD  programmes  focus  on  the improvement of clinical skills and on the imple-mentation of existing standardised management protocols  for  patients  with  DR.  This  should result in improved patient care, patient confi-dence and loyalty with regard to care received, efficient and effective models of management and  co-management  and  decreased  costs  to patients and the health care system.

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Annually, significant crop losses are reported due to diseases caused by phytopathogens. Most subsistence farmers cannot afford the high cost of chemical treatments thereby resulting in the increasing dependence on plant extracts to manage crop diseases. In this study, we documented plants used for the management of cabbage and spinach diseases in OR Tambo Municipality, Eastern Cape Province. An ethnobotanical survey using semi-structured questionnaires was used to document plants and plant parts used by the subsistence farmers in managing cabbage and spinach diseases. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to 41 consenting subsistence farmers from November to December in 2021, using snowball sampling. The collected data were subjected to descriptive statistical and ethnobotanical analyses. A total of 17 plants belonging to 10 families were identified by the participants as being used in mitigating cabbage and spinach diseases. Tulbaghia violacea, Aloe ferox, and Capsicum annuum had the highest use value of 0.32 each, whereas Tulbaghia violacea had the highest relative frequency of citation of 0.39. This current study revealed the importance of plants in managing crop diseases in local communities. It provides baseline data for future pharmacological evaluations in authenticating the efficacies of the identified plants in managing crop diseases.

A study was conducted over two seasons in a marginal soil with an acid saturation of 54%. A plant growth promoting rhizobacterium, Bacillus megaterium, a commercial biocontrol agent, Trichoderma harzianum Strain kd (Eco-T®), and soluble potassium silicate were used in this study. The objective was to control maize yield reduction caused by Rhizoctonia solani AG2 root rot isolated from infected maize. R. solani reduced maize yields significantly by 34% in the first season. However, the losses decreased in the second season from 34% to 10%. In the first season, combination of T. harzianum, B. megaterium and potassium silicate increased maize yields by 130%. The highest yield in the presence of R. solani was treatments with T. harzianum (216%) followed by T. harzianum plus potassium silicate (214%) and lastly T. harzianum plus B. megaterium (178%). However, in the second season, T. harzianum plus potassium silicate treatment resulted in the highest yields.