Introduction:
Plant pathology is one of the three teams in the Plant Protection and Quarantine Division. Other teams included in the division are Entomology and Food Conservation and Storage.
Overall Objective:
To develop and adapt disease control technologies and provide services such as disease identification and advisory and tissue culture to the farming community and other stakeholders.
Specific Objectives:
- Identification of disease causing agents (pathogens) and provide control strategies to all stakeholders to minimize crop yield losses.
- Determining the occurrence and importance of plant diseases.
- Evaluating pesticides for disease control.
- Screening and evaluating crop germplasm for disease resistance.
- Developing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies.
- Developing and adapting plant pathology biotechnology tools in disease diagnostics
Team Structure
Plant Pathology team is divided into the following sections;
Functions:
Mycology
This section is involved in detection and identification of fungal pathogens on various crops. The section also carries out research on different plant diseases and provides an advisory service to the farming community on disease identification and control recommendations.
Biotechnology
Currently the section is involved in the following: detection of GMOs in crops such as maize; tissue culture of crops such as cassava, sweet potato and irish potato; characterization of crop cultivars and plant pathogens as well as disease diagnostics using molecular techniques.
Virology
Plant viruses can cause great yield losses to field crops. Diseases caused by viruses are easily confused with plant nutrient deficiencies. This section is involved in the detection and characterization of plant viruses as well as carrying out surveys and screening for disease resistance.
Nematology
Damage by plant nematodes is one of the most important constraints to sustainable crop production. The basic programme for nematology includes surveys, collection and identification of plant parasitic nematodes and provision of control recommendation measures.
Bacteriology
This section is involved in diagnosis and identification of bacterial diseases.
How to collect plant samples for disease diagnosis
Accurate and rapid identification is crucial to the cost effective and successful control of plant diseases. In order to achieve the above it is essential that a collection is adequate in amount and not merely a scrap of leaf, bark etc. Therefore it is essential that the sample should be fresh and show all stages of disease development (early, middle and late stages). It is important to note that wilted or necrotic leaves may not necessarily contain any fungal pathogens. As the wilting may be as a result of root or stem infection, therefore, submission of a whole plant would be ideal.
Information required from a farmer includes; the name of the crop, variety, part of the plant affected, pressure of infection, distribution of the disorder, the first time the symptoms appeared, the previous crop on the same land and chemicals applied.
When submitting a diseased sample the grower is required to provide the following information; name of the crop, variety, hacterage, area cover by the disease, crop rotation, chemicals applied including fertilizers and the distribution of the problem in the field.