This book is based on the syllabus prescribed by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi, for the first and second year undergraduate students of plant pathology in State Agricultural and Horticultural Universities and hence, is of special importance to these students.
The text, conveniently divided into 13 chapters, deals with fundamental aspects of plant pathology viz., scope and objectives, importance of plant diseases, history and development of plant pathology, theory of plant diseases, causes of plant diseases (biotic, abiotic and plant viruses with representative examples) symptoms, general characteristics of plant pathogens, classification of phytopathogens, growth and reproduction of plant pathogens including replication of plant viruses, liberation or dispersal of plant pathogens, their survival and types of parasitism and variability in plant pathogens. At the end of each chapter, important questions have been provided for the benefit of the students. Diagrams, convincing tables and suitable graphs/illustrations are furnished at appropriate places. A complete bibliography and apt subject index are appended at the end.
Besides undergraduate students, this book will also serve as a basic guide to meet the requirement of teachers/researchers in plant pathology and related fields.
N.G. Ravichandra, PhD, is Associate Professor, AICRP (Nematodes), Department of Plant Pathology, UAS, GKVK, Bangalore and is engaged in teaching, research and extension activities in plant pathology. He is also guiding MSc (Agricultural sciences) and PhD students for their research work.
Dr. N.G. Ravichandra has over 146 scientific publications to his credit in national and international journals of repute. He has authored two textbooks including ‘Methods and Techniques in Plant Nematology’, published by PHI Learning. He has also contributed chapters to several textbooks and authored ten books in Kannada on various aspects of plant protection. Also, he has edited books and chapters related to plant pathology. Dr. N.G. Ravichandra is an active life member of several professional societies including Nematological Society of India, Indian Phyto-pathological Society, Society of Mycology & Plant Pathology, National Environ-mental Science Academy and Institute of Agricultural Technology.
He has undergone several Advanced Training Programmes sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology and ICAR, New Delhi and has operated their research projects as Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator. Dr. N.G. Ravichandra was involved in developing six technologies for the management of root-knot nematodes infecting tomato, brinjal and rice which have been included in Package of Practices of UAS, Bangalore for the use by the farmers.
