Springer The Role of Plant Pathology in Food Safety and Food Security: 3 (Plant Pathology in the 21st Century, 3)

Increased travel and the transport of plant material around the world pose ever more significant risks to the health of our plants. This book examines the vulnerability of crops to disease and analyzes the problems of two important staples, rice and cassava. Review From the reviews:“This is again a slender volume, with only 12 papers, but represents a rapidly expanding area of plant pathology. … They bring together a summary of work across the whole field of plant pathology … . They thus enable specialists to see their specialism as part of an integrated whole, and for students and those at the start of their careers they provide an invaluable summary of what is going on, who the key players are and where the knowledge lacunae lie.” (David Ingram, Food Security, Vol. 3, 2011) From the Back Cover This book views the vulnerability of our crops in general to devastating diseases as well as specifically the disease problems of two important staples, rice and cassava. Increased travel and increased transport of plant material throughout the world pose ever more significant risks to the health of our plants. These include not only the destruction of our food crops by pathogens which may be imported accidentally or maliciously but also their contamination by fungi that produce powerful toxins (mycotoxins). How we should respond to these challenges is the subject of several papers. Clearly, quarantine is an important measure by which the spread of plant pathogens may be at least delayed, if not curtailed altogether, but breeding plants for resistance is the mainstay for maintaining the comparative health and productivity of our crops. However, adequate resistance may not be available in the gene pool of a given species or genus and therefore the possibility of genetic modification arises, a topic treated in two of the papers. About the Author Richard N. Strange is Senior Lecturer in Plant Pathology at University College London and has a special interest in the plant disease problems of developing countries. Maria Lodovica Gullino is a professor of plant pathology at the University of Torino and President of the International Society for Plant Pathology. She has long term experience in plant disease management.