Late Blight of Potato (Phytophthora infestans) I: Fungicides Application and Associated Challenges

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) has been remained an important agricultural crop in resolving global food issues through decades. The crop has experienced enormous growth in terms of production throughout the world in recent decades because of improvement in agricultural mechanization, fertilizers application and irrigation practices. Nevertheless, a significant proportion of this valuable crop is still vulnerable to losses due to prevalence of different viral, bacterial, fungal and nematodes infestations. Late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, is one of the most threatening pathogenic diseases which not only results in direct crop losses but also cause farmers to embrace huge monetary expenses for disease control and preventive measures. The disease is well known for notorious 'Irish Famine' which resulted in drop of Irish population by more than 20% as result of hunger and potato starvation. Globally, annual losses of crop and money spend on fungicides for late blight control exceeds one trillion US dollars. This paper reviews the significance of late blight of potato and controlling strategies adopted for minimizing yield losses incurred by this disease by the use of synthetic fungicides. Advantages and disadvantages of fungicides application are discussed.

Evaluating Late Blight Severity in Potato Crops Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Machine Learning Algorithms

“…In general, protectant fungicides application on potato foliage are made after 30 days of planting with additional successive applications every 7-10 days. Applications of systemic fungicides are made beginning 60 days after planting with up to 3 applications at 10 day intervals [39]. Nevertheless, it is also important to consider that late blight control should be based on an Integrated Disease Management (IDM) strategy, which in many opportunities is not the case for potato Colombian farmers.…”

Indigenous Trichoderma harzianum as Biocontrol toward Blight Late Disease and Biomodulator in Potato Plant Productivity

“…The uncontrolled use of fungicide doses and application may trigger an emergence of fungicideresistant P. infestans, and even more pathogenic that potentially spread out by emergence of heterothallic traits (Leesutthiphonchai et al, 2018;Majeed et al, 2017). It leads potato farmers to apply higher doses of fungicides to kill P. infestans.…”

Rhizopus spp Promoting and Inducing Late Blight (Phytophthora infestans) Resistance in Solanum lycopersicum L.

“…In Tanzania and Morogoro, studies have shown that yield loss of tomato as a result of late blight disease infection is estimated to be up to 46% [5] while in Cameroon mean yield loss attributable to late blight damage is estimated to be as high as 100% [6]. In the world, late blight is one of the most devastating tomato disease which requires high chemical input for disease control [7]. Upon infection, most infected seedlings die and those that survive are stunted, have yellowish leaves and do not flower.…”