Fungi as an Alternative to Agrochemicals to Control Plant Diseases
Majority of the populations living in developing countries are actively engaged in agriculture with a good percentage being small scale farmers. The turn out of their farm produce is low owing to crops crippling diseases. Varieties of causal agents such a
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Fungi as an Alternative to Agrochemicals to Control Plant Diseases Alexander O. Emoghene and Anthony E. Futughe
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Introduction
Majority of the populations living in developing countries are actively engaged in agriculture with a good percentage being small scale farmers, however, the turn out of their farm produce are low owing to crops crippling diseases. In Nigeria, smallholder farmers produce crops such as cocoa, cereals, potato, tomato, vegetable, yam, cassava, plantain, banana, orange, which are the raw materials for local industries and also contribute to the nation’s economic development as foreign exchange earners (Oloruntoba 1989). Plant diseases account for considerable losses in crop production and storage. Currently, growers, particularly in developing countries like Nigeria still rely heavily on agrochemicals to prevent and/or control these crops threatening diseases. Despite the high effectiveness and ease of utilization, these agrochemicals can result in environmental contamination and pesticide residue presence on food, contributing to additional social and economic problems. Varieties of causal agents such as fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes amongst others have been implicated in plant diseases with an enormous reduction in crop yields globally. In most developing countries, Nigeria inclusive, crop losses are usually higher than their developed counterparts (FAO 2004).
A.O. Emoghene (&) Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] A.E. Futughe Department of Natural Sciences, School of Science and Technology, Middlesex University, London, UK e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 D. Purchase (ed.), Fungal Applications in Sustainable Environmental Biotechnology, Fungal Biology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42852-9_3
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A.O. Emoghene and A.E. Futughe
Diseases caused by Oomycetes fungi of the order perenosporales present major problems world-wide. Important foliar diseases include late blight on potatoes, blue mould of tobacco, grape downy mildew, plus a wide range of other foliar blights and downy mildew on cereals, fruits, and vegetables (Coffey et al. 1984). In addition, Phytophthora and Pythium species are responsible for many pre- and post-harvest problems of fruits and vegetables including late blight of potato tubers (Barak et al. 1984), brown rot of citrus (Cohen 1981), and black pod of cocoa (McGregor 1984). Bacterial wilt of potato, tomato, eggplant, tobacco, groundnut and banana is caused by Pseudomonas solanacerum (Wheele 1969). A serious shoot disease of Amaranthus spp. causing a blight of the young shoot which can result in a total crop failure, and associated with Choanephora cucurbitarum has been reported in Benin City, Nigeria (Ikediugwu 1981; Ikediugwu et al. 1994; Emoghene and Okigbo 2001). Evidence on the disease of crops such as fruits and vegetables and their known control measures are well documente
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