ABSTRACT
Climate and weather are the predominant factors which determine agricultural production. The validity of this claim is repeatedly and painfully brought home in those seasons when frost, drought or floods lead to widespread food shortages, and to consequent famine in vulnerable areas, although it tends to be quickly forgotten again in the lulls between climatic extremes. The case of the desert locust illustrates that the tactical war against the seasonal impact of pests or diseases calls for the assistance of the synoptic meteorologist. The climatic requirements of another plant pest, the Colorado potato beetle, are rather more modest, and its spread has been correspondingly more spectacular. The comparison of historical records of disease with corresponding climatic data presents great difficulties in practice. Practical attempts to use climatology and meteorology in the fight against a number of plant diseases date from the end of the First World War.
