Plant Disease Prevention and Management in Sustainable Agricultural Systems

Abstract

This chapter emphasizes the importance of devoting more efforts to create sustainable farming system for plant disease prevention and management in the tropics. We highlight sustainable pest management approaches that: (1) enhance high biological diversity through polyculture instead of the conventional preference of monoculture cropping systems; (2) increase ecosystem community stability by promoting natural enemies of multiple pests and pathogens; (3) stimulate inherent plant defenses; (4) improve plant health by maintaining nutrient cycling and energy flow; and (5) target vulnerable stages of a pest or pathogen through the understanding of their ecology. The use of therapeutic approaches, whether biological, chemical, or physical, is in violation of the five fundamental approaches for sustainable pest management listed above. The foundation for disease management in sustainable agricultural systems should be based on an understanding of the total agroecosystem composite of the biology of pathogens, host plant defenses, plant mixtures, soil, natural enemies, and timing of cultural practices to avoid creating a conducive environment for disease development. Successful examples of sustainable pest management strategies using these approaches are listed for key plant pathogens. While the literature review on sustainable pest management approaches for different groups of plant pathogens has been reviewed separately, future work in developing sustainable pest management should design approaches that can target multiple pests and plant pathogens concurrently through environmentally friendly and renewable strategies.