ABSTRACT
Plant disease is an output of abnormal changes in the physiological processes resulting from biotic and abiotic factors. The individual weather elements as well as their combination play an important role in the disease occurrence and their infestations. Therefore, agrometeorological information becomes pivotal for prediction of disease outbreaks for effective and judicious use of control measures, the prediction of crop yields and of the market potential for the crop. The major meteorological factors responsible for the plant disease outbreaks are temperature (both air and soil), precipitation (rainfall and dew), moisture (relative humidity, soil moisture), solar radiation (intensity and cloudiness), wind, etc. Among these variables, temperature and moisture are considered as the most important factors since all the pathogen have an optimum temperature requirement 314range for their growth and disease development becomes accelerated in this range. In the similar manner, pathogen replicates with a very high rate under favorable moisture conditions, which enhances the severity of disease incidence and intensity. Apart from this, soil moisture content plays its dominant role on the severity of soilborne diseases, while solar radiation affects the epidemiology and has a profound influence on the developmental cycle of the parasite. Wind speed influences dispersal of the pathogen, disease spread, and epidemic development. Apart from all these meteorological variables, climate change has emerged as another major threat in recent times which may bring new diseases and challenges ahead. It is expected that climate change may affect plant–pathogen interactions as well as disease epidemiology, hence an effective planning and management will be required to overcome this challenge to achieve the food security for all.
