CONCEPT AND DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED DISEASE MANAGEMENT

The concept of integrated disease management is to combine all available methods for more
effective and sustainable crop disease management with reduction in the use of pesticides and
less risk to economy, health and environment.

DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED DISEASE MANAGEMENT

The initial form of integrated control was to combine use of biological and chemical methods.
In that the search was confined to ways of neutralizing the effect of insecticides by using
preparations of a selective effect, lower concentrations and less frequent treatment.
Gradually the term “Integrated control” assumed a wider meaning related to the general
ecological base of measures against harmful organisms, directed not so much to
destroying harmful species as to regulating the ecosystems. During 1973, integrated plant
protection was moved to control of harmful organisms with the application of all other
methods satisfying economic, ecological and toxicological requirements.

• Integrated method of plant protection envisage or contemplate selection of such

means of suppressing the harmful organisms as will not only preserve but even
promote the activity of useful organisms.

• In other words, integrated plant protection represents a system of measures to regulate

intra-population correlations within the limits of a specific eco-zone.

• It must be emphasized that the approach of IDM enables us to preserve the biotic links
natural for definite associations.

• In this context, integrated control should be understood as an ideal combination of

biological, chemical, physical and other methods of plant protection against the entire
complex of pests and diseases in a specific eco-zone of a certain crop, whereby a
number of harmful species are brought down to economically acceptable level with
maintenance or increase of the activity of natural useful organisms.

THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PLANT DISEASE MANAGEMENT

1. Avoidance

2. Exclusion

3. Eradication

4. Protection

5. Resistance
6. Therapy

Disease management on the Principles of-

1. Avoidance

Many soil-borne pathogens can be avoided by proper selection of site. The previous history of
the field and the nature of the pathogen can indicate its presence in the field. Such fields should
be avoided. For example, sugarcane red rot fungus can survive in the soil for a few months.
Immediate sugarcane re-planting in such fields should be avoided.

Choice of geographic area: Many fungal and bacterial diseases are more severe in wet areas
than in dry areas. Smut and ergot diseases of pearl millet are serious in wet areas with long
spell of rainfall. These diseases could be avoided by raising the crops in dry areas with the help
of artificial irrigation.

Selection of Field:

Choice of season/planting time: Incidence of most plant diseases is severe when the
susceptible stage of the plant growth coincides with favorable weather conditions for pathogen
activity. This can be avoided by adjusting the time of planting of the crop.

Thus, in North India planting of pea and chickpea is recommended when the soil
temperature has substantially gone down after the hot rainy season to avoid root rot
and blight diseases.

2. Exclusion

As long as plants and pathogens are kept away from each other no disease will develop. The
main objective of exclusion is to prevent entry of a disease into an area or field or plant
population. Most of the method expected to be enforced by the government of a country or
state such as implementation of plant quarantine regulations.

3. Eradication

Removal and destruction of diseased plants or their diseased parts from the field reduces
disease inoculums and checks spread of the disease to healthy plants. The eradication of
pathogen can be achieved by use of chemical, bio-control agents or by crop rotation.

4. Protection
Crops grown in the fields can be protected against the pathogens attack by application of
protectant chemicals such as mancozeb, carbendazim, copper oxychloride, hexaconazole, etc.
Protection against the pathogens can also be achieved by application of bio-control agents such
as Trichoderma species, Bacillus subtilis, etc., particularly against soil-borne pathogens.

5. Resistance in crop plants

Use of disease resistant species against pathogen is the easiest, cheapest and the most
effective method of plant disease management. Disease resistant plant species can be
developed by selection, breeding, or gene manipulation by genetic engineering.
6. Therapy (cure of disease plants by chemotherapy/thermotherapy)

Some plant diseases can be cured by on-time diagnosis and application of suitable chemicals or
by heat treatment. Examples- wilt disease caused by fungus or bacteria can be cured by
application of systemic fungicides or antibiotic chemicals. Seed borne pathogens can also be
destroyed by heat therapy such as smut of wheat, barley, maize, etc.

Selection of disease free seed and planting stock

Planting of disease-free seed in pathogen-free field is often the most effective method
of avoiding plant diseases. Certain diseases like smut, red rot of sugarcane, black scurf of
potato, etc. can be avoided by planting disease-free planting materials in the disease
free fields.

Management on the Principle of Exclusion also include-

i. Plant Quarantine Regulations

It aims at preventing entry of pathogens from infested areas to non-infested areas
by necessary regulations passed by country or a state. In spite of some limitations,
Plant Quarantine Regulations is accepted a necessary procedure in the fight against
plant diseases.
ii. Inspection and seed certification
The crop grown exclusively for seed purposes are periodically inspected for
presence of disease that are disseminated by seed and necessary precautions
taken to remove the diseased plants. The produce is then certified as certified
seed. By this method inter and intra regional spreads of seed-borne diseases are
prevented.
Eradication of Alternate host

Pathogens that have continuous infection chain, i.e., the disease cycle is maintained round the
year through the main or collateral or alternate hosts. The primary inoculum is produced on
and dispersed from these hosts.

If these wild or uneconomical hosts are destroyed, the infection chain is broken and
primary inoculum is eliminated from the surroundings of the field and chances of initiation
of disease in the crop is reduced.

2. Rotation of susceptible with non-susceptible crop

When the same crop is raised year after year in the same field, the soil borne pathogen of
the crop easily perennate in the soil and their population increase. After sometime, the
soil become heavily infested that it becomes unfit for cultivation of the crop.

In such fields, when unrelated or non-host crops are grown for a definite period after
the susceptible crop, the pathogen is starved out because of lack of nutrition. Thus,
crop rotation help reduce disease.

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