REVIEW ON EPIDEMIOLOGY, SAMPLING TECHNIQUES, MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES OF LATE BLIGHT (Phytophthora infestans) OF POTATO AND ITS YIELD LOSS

Late blight of potato is the most important polycyclic oomycete disease globally and is caused by Phytophtora infestans, which resulted in yield loss ranged from 5-100%. The pathogen spores can be spread via wind, rain splash, seed tubers, farm equipment, and animals. Losses due to Phytophthora infestans have been estimated to € 12 billion per annum, of which the losses in developing countries have been estimated around € 10 billion per annum. Disease assessment is done at the stage at which the crop tends to be most vulnerable to late blight epidemics, which is one to two weeks after flowering (45 to 65 days old) and each sample is assessed by the standard scale 1-100%. Late blight of potato can be managed effectively through the integration of all strategies such as removal of infected volunteer potato and other hosts, adjusting the date of planting and clean seed tuber, use of resistant varieties, seed dressing fungicides like metalaxyl, and use of Pseudomonas and Bacillus biosurfactants etc. Therefore, it is valuable to use integrated disease management to tackle the problem as best management approach.