Standard Methods and Innovative Techniques in Phytopathometry, the Art and Science of Plant Disease Measurement

Abstract

Agriculture remains a mainstay gross domestic product earner and key contributor for public health nutrition of various economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Pests and disease attacks, and ecological health effects are some of the vital challenges to agro-productivity and sustainability. Early detection, proper diagnosis, accurate and precise measurement or correct estimation of  disease would help mitigate the losses encountered by the farm economy from these bio-pressures which already are known to exceed 50% postharvest. Classical and conventional approaches to crop loss assessments though useful but whose accuracy depends largely on the skill of the assessors is on the other hand time consuming and prone to some forms of biases. Modern technology through remote sensing techniques and various other forms of satellite-based or airplane-borne sensing systems including radar, GIS, GPS and drones hold strong potentials for improving disease detection, disease or damage assessment and crop loss estimation. Herein, a review highlighting some of the standard and innovative techniques of plant disease, biotic and abiotic stress detection, assessment, measurement and crop loss estimation is presented.