Monitoring important wheat diseases (A case study: Golestan province)

Field monitoring is the basis of many information, actions and researches in agriculture. As long as there is no real information and data from fields and orchards, many of the initial steps in research and implementation will be incomplete and inconclusive. Today, continuous monitoring, as the foundation of sustainable production of healthy food, is on the agenda of international organizations and institutions, and global threats are being monitored through remote sensing systems and ground monitoring in high-risk areas. Of the three main components of monitoring (i.e. environment, plant and damaging factors), climate and host plant variables can be monitored using remote sensing systems, but accurate and reliable monitoring of variables related to damaging factors (especially pests, diseases and weeds), even in developed countries, is done based on field monitoring (or in some cases a combination of both methods). The purpose of this research was to present a real picture of the state of wheat fields in Golestan province in terms of plant protection characteristics.

To determine the status of infection of wheat fields in Golestan province with important diseases, a team consisting of plant protection experts of the province was formed and wheat fields in 14 counties of the province were surveyed in the crop year 2017-2018. At each survey, a monitoring form was completed containing field information, crop specifications, and the amount of pests and disease of the field. After the finalization of the data obtained from monitoring and the elimination of their problems, the statistical and geostatistical analyses of the data were done and the geographic information system (GIS)-based maps were prepared.

After five months of project implementation, 238 wheat monitoring forms were received by the center. The total area of monitored wheat fields was 773 (with an average of 4.3) hectares and 31015 kg of seeds (with an average of 190.3 kg per hectare) were planted in these fields. Of the 18 cultivars of wheat planted, 20% of the fields were allocated to Marwarid and Ehsan varieties. In terms of planting date, eight two-week groups were defined, where 39% of fields were planted in the first half of December. Eight types of autumn crops and 8 types of spring crops were grown in rotation with wheat in the fields, and wheat (77%) and fallow (39%) were ranked first. The average final severity of powdery mildew, Septoria leaf blotch and tan spot was 5.3, 3.5 and 15%, respectively. The average percentage of occurrence and severity of Fusarium head blight was 1.1 and 1.2 out of 3, respectively, and the average severity of stripe rust disease was 0.6 out of 2. The percentage of field infection with powdery mildew, Septoria leaf blotch, tan spot and stripe rust was 60, 38, 77 and 50, respectively.

The highest disease intensity for three diseases of powdery mildew, Septoria leaf blotch and tan spot was recorded in Ramian and Turkmen counties, and the highest intensity of stripe rust was observed in Kordkuy county. The maps drawn in this research were different from the maps drawn before by the researchers of the Agricultural Research Center and plant conservation experts for Golestan province, and the changes made after six years were evident in the case of some diseases. The findings of this research showed that disease monitoring should be done as a continuous program to determine the gradual changes in the distribution of diseases and high-risk areas in the the studied region, and the effect of climate change and other factors on these maps can be tracked and analyzed.