Disease Management in Organic Crop Production by Genetically Resistance Plants - Report Example

DISEASE MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIC CROP PRODUCTION BY GENETICALLY RESISTANT PLANTS of Submission Introduction Russell and Sparrow (2008, p. 160) state that plant disease is a major challenge most farmers are facing in the world today. Each and every farmer would like to produce crops that are free from diseases because the world market is becoming highly competitive and no single consumer would want to purchase crops which have been attacked by various diseases causing pathogens. It is important for farmers to develop strategies that will help in eliminating the chances of attack of crops by various pathogens. Plant pathogens are usually very difficult to manage because these pathogens are microscopic, thus, it becomes extremely hard to identify them (Premanandh, 2011, p. 40). The nature of the various pathogens is that they keep on changing their appearance through a process known as mutation, which enables the development of new strains of pathogens that are very different from the parent pathogens. Due to these reasons, therefore, the control of the pathogens becomes extremely difficult. The management of diseases in organic crop production is, therefore, effective when genetically resistant crops are used in the farm (Anderson, 2001, p. 216). Report On Disease Management in Organic Crop Production by Genetically Resistant Plants Different plants have different levels of resistance to diseases and no certain plant has resistance to all the present diseases. Disease resistance of a certain plant can, therefore, be defined as the ability of that plant to reduce the level of susceptibility to the infection of a certain pathogen. Plants can suffer infection of diseases from various pathogens like bacteria, fungus, virus and nematodes that are available in the soil (Mayer, 1998, p. 28). Fungus is responsible for causing various infections in plants like the grey mould, blight, the powdery mild dew, as well as the bunts. Genetic engineering has enabled the development of resistant crops that can help fight the attack of the fungal diseases. The various ways in which the production of these crops is achieved is through the introduction of genes from enzymes that are extracted from other plants like the Chitinase enzyme which breaks down the component, chitin which is an important constituent of the cell walls of the fungus. Another way is through the introduction of the various plant genes to an identified plant, thus, helping in enhancing the plant’s ability to resist attack from pathogens (Abram, 2006, p. 68). Plant diseases induced by virus include Beet necrotic yellow vein virus which causes the reduction in yields of sugar beets by making them have more hairy roots, as well as making the plant have a redundancy in growth (Lottmann, OCallaghan, Baird & Walter, 2010, p. 26). The production of the diseases-resistant crop is by treating the plant with some encoding with the viral genes known as the “coat protein”; thus, the plant can respond by producing a viral protein before the virus is able to infect it. This process is called co-suppression and the plant is able to shut down the protein’s expression, thus, the virus will be unable to infect the plant. The examples of the genetically resistant plants to the viral infection include the papayas and the squash all of which have the protein coat that help in boosting resistance to infection (Buijs, Martinet, de Mendiburu and Ghislain, 2005, p. 180). Advantages of Using This Strategy The use of genetically resistant crops has various advantages that make the use of these of crops very beneficial in the farming system. The use of these crops does not in any way disrupt the functioning of the environment but the use of these resistant crops help in the elimination or the reduction in the use of inorganic chemicals that are often used in controlling the attack of pathogens on plants (Lofstedt, Fischhoff and Fischhoff, 2002, p. 382). Inorganic chemicals are known to cause various disadvantages on the environment for example the use of various herbicides are known to be highly dangerous to various beneficial insects in the ecosystem. Another advantage is that the use of a certain resistant plant in controlling a certain disease is usually in agreement with other strategies that are used in the prevention of other diseases. This, therefore, helps in the application of more than one disease prevention strategies with one type of genetically resistant crop. Finally, the stability of the host-pathogen systems have been found to be long lasting, therefore, the resistance of the crop can continue for a very long time. This is especially important in the sense that a farmer will be able to reduce the costs of production in that there will be no need of purchasing other resistant seeds or incurring costs in pathogen control (Collier & Mullins, 2010, p. 136). Disadvantages of Using This Strategy The use of this strategy also has various shortcomings in that not all crops are genetically resistant, for example, the crop diseases like the Tomato late blight, scientifically referred to as Phytophthora infestants, has no genetically resistant crops that have been developed (Griffith, 1998, p. 19). This shortcoming is compounded by the fact that most seed companies are not willing to invest in research of resistant crops for minor crops like tomatoes and even if such research is conducted, the end result is the development of a resistant seed that is highly expensive, thus, becoming unaffordable to the farmers (Koike et al. 2000, p. 4). Another disadvantage is that a certain crop that is resistant to one disease might not be resistant to another dangerous disease, for example, the use of a resistant lettuce plant to mosaic virus may not as well imply that that the plant will be resistant to the corky root disease, thus, the chosen resistant plant will not be able to prevent other diseases. The development of partial resistance for various crops is not considered attractive for commercial business because partial resistance only reduces the susceptibility of crops to diseases and at the same time the costs that are involved are enormous (Gray, 2004, p. 237). Conclusion The management of diseases through the use of genetically resistant crops will be successful only if other factors are taken into account. The presence of weeds in a farming system may influence the presence of various pathogens, therefore, in the management of diseases, it is important to ensure that non-beneficial weeds are eliminated completely. It is important to determine the type of diseases that are present and are causing the problem in crops. It is important for all the players to determine the problem and the possible solutions. The complexity in the biology of the pathogens makes it extremely difficult to develop plants which are genetically resistant to pathogens. Pathogens use two major strategies in their survival which include biotrophy and nectrotrophy, thus, plants have developed very different ways of dealing with these pathogens. In the light of the above, therefore, it can be stated that there is no plant that can develop resistance to all the pathogens. 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