Biocontrol of plant diseases: need to tap the options

摘要

Occurrence of any plant disease is the consequence of the interaction among the susceptible host, virulent pathogen and the favourable environment. Biological control agents interact with the components of this disease triangle to reduce the incidenceof disease. The biocontrol methods, such as compost, seed bacterization, fungal biocontrol agents, seed treatments, induced systemic resistance, genetic manipulation and induced resistance using pathogens and non-pathogens that seem to be useful in managing the diseases of legumes in general and arid legumes in particular are discussed in this paper. Commercialized systems for the biological control of plant diseases are a few. However, some biocontrol agents have been reported to be as effective as fungicide control. In view of awareness toward nature-friendly management of plant diseases, use of biological control measures in arid legumes will be a most promising proposition for disease management. In view of little information available on biological control of diseases in arid legumes, most relevant practices of plant biocontrol have been discussed emphasizing the role of fungal biocontrol agents, soil solarization, use of compost, and induced resistance.