Organic Agriculture for Plant Disease Management

Abstract

Green Revolution ushered the nation into a millennium of self-sufficiency, but we have again been presented with the threat of diminishing agricultural production due to deterioration in soil health and, ultimately, risking the sustenance of the human race. Indiscriminate and reckless use of chemicals has fuelled the concerns of environmental pollution, pesticide toxicity and soil health even further. Amidst this, organic agriculture has come out to be a holistic paradigm for sustaining life as we know it. Though diseases are not a threat in organically managed farms, still in order to prevent disease incidence from reaching economically damaging levels, organic agriculture uses the natural process and fundamental components of the ecosystem, such as nutrient cycling and microorganism population as soil management tools. Disease control through soil management can be accomplished either through modifying nutrient availability or by modifying its uptake. Organic agriculture follows composting, manuring, crop rotation and reduced tillage systems for suppression of pathogens and control of disease.