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Date: December 13, 2007
Source: Expressindia [edited]
<http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Rain-in-the-region-good-for-wheat-says-PAU/250133/> 

The cloudy weather and incessant rain in the last few days, experts at Punjab Agricultural University [PAU] say, is good for wheat, sugarcane and oilseed crops. The news might not be all that good for potato crops, though, which could see some rise in late blight due to the rain. Dr GS Bains, head of PAU's Department of Agrometeorology, said that the maximum temperature was much lower and the minimum temperature was higher than normal.

Plant pathologists highlight that there are chances of further development of the disease in potato. The farmers should follow the recommendations of PAU on the management of late blight of potato. The current weather conditions are highly conducive for development and spread of late blight.
Isolated incidences of the disease have been observed in Hoshiarpur and some adjoining areas.

Due to favourable weather, the disease can spread to other areas too. The farmers of Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Nawanshar and Ropar should follow the recommendations of the university, say the experts.

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[2]
Date: 12 Dec 2007
Source: The Hindu [edited]
<http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/015200712121921.htm>

Late blight, a fungal disease that affects potato crops, has returned to haunt farmers here [Punjab] and the Punjab Agricultural University has issued an alert to growers after coming across fresh infections in a farm in Hoshiarpur district.

"We have found the attack of late blight disease at one potato farm at Tanda in Hoshiarpur which has damaged the entire crop sown at one acre field," H S Rewal, head of the Department of Plant Pathology at PAU said on Wednesday [19 Dec 2007].

Stating that the current weather conditions are conducive to the development and spread of disease on other fields also, he asked farmers to spray recommended fungicide on their farms to protect their crop. "Since this disease is weather dependent and develops very fast during high humidity, the present weather conditions are quite favourable to development of late blight attack on crops," he said.

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[3]
Date: 3 Dec 2007
Source: The Statesman [edited]
<http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=10&id=206372&usrsess=1>

"This year potato cultivators will face immense problems from the Dhasa [potato blight] disease," said Mr Tapan Kumar Sarkar, district plant protection officer of Jalpaiguri. "Throughout Jalpaiguri district all the cold storages have affected seed [potatoes]. We apprised the cultivators of Jalpaiguri not to use the affected seed as last year [2006] a majority of potatoes were affected by Dhasa. But the farmers are not accepting our proposal as they want to buy potatoes from local markets," said Mr Sarkar.

Mr Shekh Anwar Hussein, the principal agriculture officer of Jalpaiguri said, "We have started campaigning throughout the district to make the cultivators aware. The methods are being advertised in leaflets, paper and television in all the regions. The farmers should be aware about the diseases. If the farmer used the local seed then they should purify the seed using certain methods which are there in the leaflets. As affected seed will destroy all the potatoes they should not be used."

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[Potato late blight (PLB) is caused by the fungus _Phytophthora infestans_, which can also infect other solanaceous crops such as tomato or eggplant.
It is one of the most important potato diseases worldwide and affects leaves as well as tubers. The fungus is spread by plant material (including seed tubers), wind and water, and solanaceous weeds can serve as pathogen reservoirs. Other fungi and bacteria often invade blight-infected tubers resulting in total tuber breakdown. Disease management includes preventative fungicide treatments of seed tubers, but it appears that this has been a problem in the regions mentioned in the reports above.

In India, infected seed potatoes are typically the main source of disease inoculum, and losses of up to 75 per cent have been reported previously in some areas. In the subtropical plains, conditions favourable for PLB are generally limited, but in the hills the conditions are highly congenial for the disease. Several PLB resistant varieties are being deployed around the country and a forecasting model has been developed to determine the timing of fungicide applications.

Worldwide, considerable variation in aggressiveness between different isolates of _P. infestans_ has been observed. A severe form of PLB was responsible for the Irish potato famine in the late 1840s. PLB is considered an increasing problem in many areas, including India, because new and even more virulent strains continue to emerge. Some of these can destroy a potato plant in a matter of hours and a complete crop within days.

There are 2 mating types of the fungus, A1 and A2. Where both are present, reproduction occurs sexually as well as asexually, leading to greater variation and fitter strains with higher fungicide resistance and increased yield losses. A1 was the 1st mating type to spread worldwide; A2 began to spread later and was 1st recorded in India in the northwestern hills in 1990. It is now also present in northern Europe, northern and Central America, and other parts of Asia.

Maps
India:
<http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/india/images/IndiaMap_tourism.gif>
and
<http://healthmap.org/promed?v=22.9,79.6,5>
Punjab:
<http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/punjab/punjabroads.htm>
West Bengal districts:
<http://www.wb.nic.in/westbg/dis.html>
Pictures
Diseased potato tubers:
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2007/01/070102132649.jpg>
Leaf symptoms:
<http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/bioref/Chromista/potato_blight.jpg>
Microscopy of infected cells:
<http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/olympusmicd/galleries/brightfield/images/potatoblight.jpg> 

Microscopy of sporangiophores:
<http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/bioref/Chromista/Phytoph_infestans.jpg>
Links
Disease information, history, and background:
<http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/pls/portal30/docs/FOLDER/IKMP/PW/PH/DIS/VEG/FS0401_REVIEW.PDF>, 

<http://www.apsnet.org/online/feature/lateblit/>,  and <http://www.olympusmicro.com/micd/galleries/brightfield/potatoblight.html>
Potato cultivation and late blight situation in India:
<http://gilb.cip.cgiar.org/index.php?id=1564>
Management of potato diseases including PLB:
<http://archives.eppo.org/EPPOStandards/PP2_GPP/pp2-02-e.doc>
PLB information and resources via:
<http://www.potato.org.uk/department/knowledge_transfer/fight_against_blight/advice_blight.html> 

_P. infestans_ taxonomy:
<http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/SynSpecies.asp?RecordID=232148>
PAU Plant Pathology:
<http://www.pau.edu/departmenthome.asp>.  - Mod.DHA]

[see also in the archive:
Late blight, potato - UK: new strains 20071207.3939 Late blight, potato - India: (Punjab), alert 20071116.3715 Fungal diseases, vegetable crops - Canada: cucumber, potato 20070730.2442 Late blight, potato & vegetable fungal diseases - Europe 20070708.2174 Late blight, potato - India, UK 20070509.1491
2006
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Late blight, potato - India (Kashmir) 20060424.1200 Late blight, potato - USA (AK), Bangladesh 20060324.0911
2003
---
Late blight, potato - Papua New Guinea 20030306.0554
2002
---
Potato late blight, potato - Canada (Newfoundland) 20020818.5091
2001
---
Phytophthora infestans, potato late blight - Russia 20010620.1177 2000
---
Potato late blight, global research efforts 20001031.1903 Potato late blight: global initiative 20000516.0765
1996
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Potato late blight: global threat 19960617.1123]

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