Fungi Associated with Major Agricultural and Forage Crops in Integrated Systems of Brazilian Tropical Regions

Abstract

Integrated production systems were developed to preserve productive resources and maintain the profitability of agribusiness. However, the use of seeds of low physiological and sanitary quality and the implantation of agricultural and forage crops in production fields of low sanitary quality may favor the dissemination and proliferation of phytopathogens such as fungi. Therefore, using the scientific literature, this work aimed to identify the fungi associated with the main agricultural and forage crops that cause damage to the integrated production systems of Brazilian tropical regions and their control measures. This work was based on a literature review in the Scielo, Scopus and Google Scholar databases, with data obtained between 1999 and 2019. The keywords employed were “fungus”, “tropical grass”; “agricultural crops”; “ICLS” (Integrated Crop-Livestock); and “ICLF” (Crop-Livestock-Forest) and their respective terms in Portuguese, under different combinations. For the inclusion criteria, publications (papers, books, theses, dissertations, and scientific communiqués) from 1999 to 2019 which fit the study aim were selected, both in the Portuguese and English languages. The publications that did not meet the criteria of this study and were repeated in databases were considered as exclusion criteria. The main fungi associated with forage and agricultural crops and soils of integrated systems of Brazilian tropical regions are Bipolaris sp., Curvularia sp., Exserohilum syn. Helminthosporium sp., Phoma sp., Fusarium sp., Macrophomina sp., Pythium sp., Rhizoctonia sp. and Sclerotium sp. The main methods of fungal control are the use of quality seeds, crop rotation, resistant cultivars, and chemical seed treatment.

Botanical and chemical fungicides in the treatment of commercial seeds of Brachiaria brizantha and Panicum maximum

“…Among them, the association with pathogenic fungi is one of the most relevant. The transmission of fungi in forage seeds marketed in Brazil contributes to the emergence of epidemics in the field and a decrease in the physiological and sanitary quality of seeds, interfering directly with germination and emergence rates [4][5][6].…”