PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF PLANT DISEASES

This practical guide is intended for use in identifying some plant diseases and their causal agents. It can also help readers learn to handle those pathogens in labs, in the field, and in greenhouses. Instead it targets the most important pathogens that affect cereals vegetable pulses in developing countries, since economic losses in those countrie are more significant than in other cereal-producing areas of the world. This practical guide is intended for use in identifying some plant diseases and their causal agents. The guide is intended for researchers working on plant pathology in support of cereals vegetable pulses improvement programs aimed at generating disease-resistant germplasm. However, it should also be useful for technicians and extension workers who do not have a plant pathologist to help them identify diseases. It aims to serve as a guideline for easy diagnosis of plant diseases and also the identification of phyto-pathogenic seed- borne fungal or bacterial problems at least at the colony level. Focuses on the isolation, purification and identification techniques as well as common general and selective growth media for fungi, bacteria, nematodes and virus etc.