Plant disease is as old as land plants themselves, as shown by the fossil record. Several biblical accounts of plagues have been attributed to plant diseases, and in Roman times cereal rust was so serious that an annual ritual, the Robigalia, was performed to appease the Rust God, Robigo. In the mid-nineteenth century the Irish Potato Famine, a result of potato late blight disease, caused the deaths of some 800,000 persons and the emigration of about 1.5 million more, mostly to North America. Similarly, but to a lesser extent, brown spot disease of rice caused the Bengal famine of 1943 in India. Plant diseases continue to cost billions of dollars annually worldwide. The combined costs of lost yield, reduced quality, and costs of pesticides and other control measures are inevitably passed on to consumers. No type of plant is free from disease.
Zaloguj się, aby uzyskać dostęp do pełnego tekstu.
