Review of Disease Incidence of Major Crops in 2002

The year of 2002 was very unusual in climatic condition. Warm winter weather, high temperature and drought in March and April, little precipitation in June and early and mid-July and, nearly continuous rain-falls from late July to whole period of August accompanied with low temperature and insufficient sunshine in 2002 resulted in unfavorable conditions for plant growth in one way or another, In relation to the unusual weather, in general, diseases associated with low temperature, poor radiation and much rainfall occurred severely in this year, In rice, incidence of bacterial grain rot, and false smut increased sharply, whereas other major diseases including blast occurred mildly due mainly to the reduced application of nitrogen fertilizer, In vegetables, potato and sweet potato, and fruit trees, incidence of diseases was largely dependent on climatic condition of growth period in particular crops. However, diseases favored low temperature and much rainfall, such as Phytophthora disease increased markedly compared to those of normal years, while anthracnose and soft rot tended to decrease significantly.