UNIT 3: ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF

DISEASES
World scenario
1. Irish Potato Famine:

 Great Irish Famine, or Famine of 1845–49, famine that occurred in Ireland in

1845–49 when the potato crop failed in successive years.

 The crop failures were caused by late blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves

and the edible roots, or tubers, of the potato plant.

 The causative agent of late blight is Phytophthora infestans.

 The Irish famine was the worst to occur in Europe in the 19th century.

 The Irish Famine of 1846-50 took as many as one million lives from hunger and

disease, and changed the social and cultural structure of Ireland in profound ways.

 The Famine also spurred new waves of immigration, thus shaping the histories of

the United States and Britain as well.

 The combined forces of famine, disease and emigration
depopulated the island; Ireland's population dropped from 8
million before the Famine to 5 million years after.
 Coffee rust in Sri Lanka (1869) took less than three decades to
anhilate the entire coffee production of the island.
 Downy mildew occurred in epiphytotic way during 1878-1882 in
France.
 Powdery mildew of grape - France (1851 and 1878).

 Panama wilt of banana damaged the crop during 1910 in

Panama and Surinam.
 Sigatoka leaf spot of banana damaged the crop during 1930 in
Central and South America.
 Bunchy top of banana during 1940 in Sri Lanka
Indian scenario
Bengal famine: In 1943, Bengal had to face a serious famine. One of the reasons to which

this famine has been attributed is the loss of yield of rice due to attack of Helminthosporium

oryzae causing leaf spot disease . At least, 2 million people died from starvation and

malnutrition during a famine in the Indian province of Bengal.

In 1946-47 wheat rust epidemic caused food shortage.

In 1963 bacterial leaf blight of paddy in Bihar wiped the crop completely.

Tungro virus in 1985-87 and blast during 1985-88 caused havoc to rice crop in Tamil

Nadu.

In 1938-39 red rot of sugarcane occurred in large scale in Bihar, Punjab and U. P.

Bunchy top of banana wiped out the whole banana plantation in Palani hills of Tamil Nadu.
Important famines/epidemics in world and India and their
importance
IRISH FAMINE

Country Ireland
Location Ireland
Period 1845 – 1852
Total population 8 million
Total deaths 1.5 million
Migration 1.6 million
Reason Policy failure, potato blight
Impact on demographics Population fell by 20-25% due to mortality and
emigration
Consequences Permanent change in the island's demographic,
political and cultural landscape
Scientific Advancement Birth of Plant Pathology as a science
Anto De Bary and Speer Schneider (1861)
proved Fungi as causal agent (Phytophthora
infestans)
History of Irish Famine
 In about 1800, the potato, which was introduced in Europe from South and
Central America around 1570 a.d., was a well-established crop in Ireland.
 After strong objections against adopting it because (1) it was new and not
mentioned in the Bible, (2) it was produced in the ground and, therefore, was
unclean, and (3) because parts of it were poisonous, the potato was
nevertheless adopted and its cultivation spread rapidly.
 Adoption of potato cultivation came as a result of it producing much more
edible food per unit of land than grain crops, mostly wheat and rye, grown
until then.
 It was adopted also because the ground protected it from the pests and
diseases that destroyed aboveground crops and from destruction by the
soldiers sent by absentee English landlords to collect overdue land rents.
 At that time, most Irish farmers were extremely poor, owned no land, and lived
in small windowless, one-room huts.
 The farmers rented land from absentee English landlords who lived in England, and
planted grain and other crops.
 The yields were poor and, in any case, large portions of them had to be used for paying the
exorbitant rent so as to avoid eviction.
 The Irish farmers also kept small plots of land, usually as small as a quarter of an acre and
basically survived the winter with the food they produced on that land.
 Potato production was greatly favored by the cool, wet climate of Ireland, and the
farmers began growing and eating potatoes to the exclusion of other crops and
foodstuffs.
 Irish farmers, therefore, became dependent on potatoes for their sustenance and
survival.
 Lacking proper warehouses, the farmers stored their potato tubers for the winter in
shallow ditches in the ground.
 Periodically, they would open up part of the ditch and remove as many potatoes as they
thought they would need for the next few weeks.
 The potatoes grew well for many years, free of any serious problems.
 In the early 1840s, potato crops began to fail to varying extents in several
areas of Europe and Ireland.
 Most of the growing season of 1845 in Ireland was quite favorable for the
growth of potato plants and for the formation of tubers.
 Everything looked as though there would be an excellent yield of potatoes
everywhere that year.
 Then, the weather over northern Europe and Ireland became cloudy,
wetter, and cooler and stayed that way for several weeks.
 The potato crop, which until then looked so promising, began to show blighted
leaves and shoots, and whole potato plants became blighted and died.
 In just a few weeks, the potato fields in northern Europe and in Ireland
became masses of blighted and rotting vegetation.
 The farmers were surprised and worried, especially when they noticed that many of the
potatoes still in the ground were rotten and others had rotting areas on their surface.
 They did what they could to dig up the healthy looking potatoes from the affected
fields and put them in the ditches to hold them through the winter.
 The farmer’s worry became horror when later in the fall and winter they began
opening the ditches and looking for the potatoes they had put in them at harvest.
 Alas, instead of potatoes they found only masses of rotting tubers, totally unfit for
consumption by humans or animals.
 The dependence of Irish farmers on potatoes alone meant that they had nothing
else to eat — and neither did any of their neighbors.
 Hunger was quickly followed by starvation, which resulted in the death of many Irish.

 The famine was exacerbated by the political situation between England and Ireland.
 The British refused to intervene and help the starving Irish with food for
several months after the blight destroyed the potatoes.
 Eventually, by February of the next year (1846), food, in the form of corn
from the United States, began to be imported and made available to the
starving poor who paid for it by working on various government construction
projects.
 Unfortunately, the weather in 1846 was again cool and wet, favoring the
potato blight, which again spread into and destroyed the potato plants and
tubers.
 Hunger, dysentery, and typhus spread among the farmers again, and
more of the survivors emigrated to North America.
 It is estimated that one and a half million Irish died from hunger, and about as
many left Ireland, emigrating mostly to the United States of America.
 The cause of the destruction of the potato plants and of the rotting of the
potato tubers was, of course, unknown and a mystery to all.
 The farmers and other simple folk believed it to have been brought about by
“the little people,” by the devil himself whom they tried to exorcise and
chase away by sprinkling holy water in the fields, by locomotives traveling the
countryside at devilish speeds of up to 20 miles per hour and discharging
electricity harmful to crops they went by, or to have been sent by God as
punishment for some unspecified sin they had committed.
 The more educated doctors and clergy were so convinced of the truth of
the theory of spontaneous generation that even when they saw the mildew
fungus growth on affected leaves and on some stems and tubers, they
thought that this growth was produced by the dying plant as a result of the
rotting rather than the cause of the death and rotting of the plant.
 Some of the educated people, however, began to have second thoughts about
the situation. Dr. J. Lindley, a professor of botany in London, proposed
incorrectly that the plants, during the rains, over absorbed water through
their roots and because they could not get rid of the excess water, their
tissues became swollen and rotted.

 The Reverend Dr. Miles Berkeley, however, noticed that the

mold covering potato plants about to rot was a fungus

(oomycete) similar but not identical to a fungus he observed
on a sick onion.
 The fungus on potato, however, was identical to a fungus recovered from sick
potato plants in northern Europe.
 Berkeley concluded that this fungus was the cause of the potato blight, but
when he proposed it in a letter to a newspaper, it was considered as an
incredible and bizarre theory unsupported by facts.
 The puzzle of what caused blight of potato continued
unanswered for 16 years after the 1845 destruction of
potatoes by the blight.
 Finally, in 1861, Anton de Bary did a simple experiment
that proved that the potato blight was caused by a
fungus.
 Therefore, the fungus, which, we know now, is an oomycete
was named Phytophthora infestans (“infectious plant
destroyer” from phyto = plant, phthora = destruction,
infestans = infectious), was the cause of the potato blight.
COFFE RUST

Country Ceylon (Srilanka)

Period 1867 -1893
Cause Cofffee Rust by Hemileia vastatrix
Impact Economy ruined
Consequences 1. Yield reduced from 228 kg berries /acre to 101 kg/
acre
2. Export decline by 93 per cent by 1893
3. Coffee replaced by tea plantations
4. Drinking habit changed from coffee to tea
Scientific M.J Berkly –Idetified the cause as Hemileia vastatrix
Advancement H.M.Ward – Elucidated the Role of Environment and
Monocropping in disease epidemic
DOWNY MILDEW

Country France (Europe)

Period 1878
Reason/ Cause Downy mildew caused by Plasmopara
viticola
Consequences 1. Reduced grape yields and quality greatly
2. Killed young vines in many vineyreds
Wine industry affected and Economy ruined
Scientific Discovery of Bordeaux mixture (1885) by
Advancement P.A.Millardet
BENGAL FAMINE

Country India
Location Bengal state
Period 1943
Cause Brown spot of paddy
Pathogen Drechslera oryzae
Impact Shortage of food
Raise in the price of rice
Death of 2 million people due to hunger
Migration of people to other states.
Change in the Agriculture policy.
Rice Diseases
Significance of Plant Disease/ Plant Pathogens
 Of the 30,000 plant diseases recorded from different
countries about 5,000 diseases are present in India.
 It is estimated that the total annual production for all
agricultural crops worldwide is about 12000-13000
billion $.
 Of this, about 500 billion $ worth of produce is lost
annually to diseases, insects and weeds.
Following are the significance of Plant diseases
 Famine: Irish famine – Late blight of potato, Bengal famine – Brown spot of
paddy
 LOSSES

a) Quantity (Yield loss): During Wheat rust epidemic in Bihar (1956- 57)
yield reduced from 900kg/ha to 50 kg/ha.
b) Crop quality losses: Example: Citrus canker, Chiku rough storage, Apple
scab, Groundnut – aflatoxin, Wheat – bunt, ear cockle.
 Human/ animal hazard /food poisoning: Consumption of Ergot infected rye
– causes gangrene, loss of fingers, limbs and death. (Known as Saint Antony's
fire). Death of one Lakh turkeys in England due to consumption of Peanut meal
contaminated with Aflatoxin. Aflatoxin is immune suppressive and causes
Liver cancer in Human beings.
 Cropping pattern changed: In Sri lanka Coffee was replaced by Tea
plantation due to Coffee Rust (1867).
 Limit the cultivation of variety: Due to Downy mildew of Bajra,
cultivation of GJ 104 variety was discouraged in Gujarat. Due to Wilt &
red rot cultivation of co. 671, co. 8603 sugarcane variety was
discouraged in south Gujarat.
 diet change/ food habit change: In Sri Lanka drinking habit changed
from coffee to tea due to coffee rust. In Southern U.S.A food habit
changed i.e. from wheat to corn due to wheat rust
 Agro- industries affected: Due to Wilt and red rot diseases Sugar
Industries in Gujarat affected. Wine industry in France was severely
affected due to Downy mildew disease.
 People’s migration:Due to Irish Famine in more than 1.6 million people migrated from

Ireland to North American continent.

 Sociological effect :. Increase in Poverty due to close of Agro industries

 High/rise market price: Shortage of food due to heavy crop loss leads to Rise in price of

Agril. Commodities

 High cost of production:Extra Expenditure to be incurred on pesticides, labour etc. for

control of diseases

 Political effect: Due to Irish famine, the free trade was allowed between England and

Ireland

 Destroy the beauty of environment: By damaging plants around houses, along street, in

gardens & in forest.

 Ecological implications:Environmental pollution due to fungicidal use or due to disease.