Research Unlocks Secrets to Overcoming Root Disease

Root pathogens have been wreaking havoc in Western Australia because each year, grain growers in this part of Australia incur $84 million losses because of the consequent reduced yield and crop quality. To solve this problem, Department of Agriculture and Food research officer Shahajahan Miyan studied root diseases in 246 paddocks from across the wheat belt of Western Australia.

Results showed that there is variation in degrees of suppression of soil diseases such as rhizoctonia, take all, crown root and root lesion nematodes. They also found that in a control set up identified to be suppressed two years ago, the suppressed condition still occur in bioassays during two seasons. This may indicate that there are organisms present in the suppressive soils, and once identified they can be used to enhance and possibly improve soil characteristics.

For details, see the article at  http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/PC_95171.html?s=516977085.