Synopses & Reviews
Witches' broom is an important Southern and Central American disease of cocoa that is estimated to reduce annual world production by some six to seven percent. The disease is still spreading into currently unaffected cocoa-producing areas. This book describes the results of an authoritative, international study resulting from the collaboration among plant pathologists in South America and the Caribbean with centres of expertise in the USA and UK. A series of comparative experiments were established under different climate and disease pressure conditions in six countries. This book describes the experimental methods, comparative analyses and the conclusions drawn from these experiments.
Review
This useful book gives an authoritative account of past and present research - Experiental Agriculture
Synopsis
The Monograph deals with the conception, planning, implementation, results and conclusions of the International Witches' Broom Project (IWBP), which was set up in 1985 with the aim of producing an economic management system for witches' broom disease of cocoa. The contributions of the various sponsors, and the roles played by the participating organizations and scientists are described in the introductory chapter. Chapter 2 provides a review of what was, and what was not known from published literature about the cocoa- witches' broom pathosystem in 1989. The scope of the project and the approaches used are covered in Chapter 3, while Chapters 4 to 13 report on the field studies themselves in detail. The recent appearance of witches' broom in the important cocoa area of Bahia in Brazil is described in Chapter 14, before disease management recommendations are summarised and future prospects considered in the closing chapters. The many man-years of field research in the IWBP in a total of six countries generated much useful information which was analyzed both in the individual countries and collectively. Even with a document of this size, certain information and analyses with less direct relevance to disease management had to be omitted. It is expected that more detailed treatments of certain aspects will emerge in scientific papers, and further analyses will be undertaken.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [23]-242) and index.
Table of Contents
Author's address. Editor's preface. Abbreviations. Summary of disease management recommendations. Introduction to International Witches' Broom Project. The pathosystem. The IWBP studies. Comparative epidemiology studies: introduction. Comparative epidemiology experiment: Brazil. Comparative epidemiology study: Columbia Caldas and Llanos Orientales. Comparative epidemiology study: Ecuador. Comparative epidemiology study: Grenada. Comparative epidemiology study: Trinidad. Comparative epidemiology study: Venezuela. Comparative epidemiology of witches' broom pathosystem. Disease gradients of Crinipellis perniciosa on cocoa seedlings. Comparative phytosanitation methods. Witches' broom in Bahia Brazil. Disease management: recommendations. Future prospects for improvements in disease managemnt. Appendix I: IWBP commitees. Appendix II: IWBP workshops. Appendix III: Theses published by IWBP students. Appendix IV: IWBP experimental protocols. References. Index.