Role of Soil Health in Plant Disease Management: A Review

Abstract

Soil health sustains the biological productivity, maintains environmental quality and promotes plant health. Soil borne diseases are most damaging when soil conditions are poor. Major factors influencing the disease in plants are soil moisture, soil temperature, soil pH and soil nutrients. To manage disease, different methods are used like crop rotation, biological control, cover crops, suppressive soils, organic amendment, plant growth promoting rhizobacterium, vascular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, mulching, good compost, good aeration, etc. Implementation of these practices improves the soil health and reduces disease incidence in a sustainable manner. Cover crops, crop rotations and healthy sanitary practices keep the pathogenic populations at low levels and also add beneficial nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium to the soil. These all manage the disease by creating physical barrier, releasing antagonistic chemicals, competing with pathogen, increasing nutrient uptake, etc. Biological control agents have different mode of action viz., parasitism, predator, antibiosis, competition for site and nutrition, as well as by inducing the resistance in plants against pathogen [Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR)]. However, all these management strategies are helpful in improving the soil health, decreases the disease incidence and subsequently increases the yield and productivity of the crop.