Chapters authored
Cassava Bacterial Blight: A Devastating Disease of Cassava
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) with its long life cycle is affected by several diseases of which cassava bacterial blight (CBB) is the major bacterial disease in the cassava belt worldwide. The epidemiological and ecological investigations undertaken on the disease showed that the causal agent, the bacterium Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. manihotis (Xam), possesses several means for survival and dissemination that may play an important role as inoculum sources for the infection when favorable conditions occur, and the subsequent damage of the plant causing severe yield losses. In fact, Xam survives epiphytically on some weeds occurring in and around cassava fields without developing blight symptoms. Investigating the survival period over the seasons, a longer survival exceeding 5 months has been observed in non-decayed cassava debris. Also, some insects in cassava field like the variegated grasshopper (Zonocerus variegatus) vehicles the pathogen for some time. Over seasons Xam also survives often latently, in cassava stems which are then used for establishing new plantations. In regional disease surveys across ecozones in West Africa, no zone of preference has been found. Though, comparing the development of the disease and the damages caused in yield loss trials in two agro-eco-zones over 2 years, CBB was more pronounced and caused higher yield and biomass losses in the forest savannah transition zone than in the dry savannah where symptom development was positively correlated with the rainfall patterns. The detailed knowledge of the epidemiology, disease development, survival and dissemination, of the reaction of cassava varieties towards CBB such as physiological resistance mechanisms, identification of genetic resistance (QTL) and the background of observed field resistance as well as of the influence of planting time and cropping pattern allows to recommend integrated management measures such as sanitation, intercropping, removal of diseased leaves, management of planting dates according to ecozone, soil amendments, use of resistant genotypes.
Part of the book: Cassava