EFIDEMIOLOGY IN PURE STAND S AND VARIETAL MIXTURES

o
Peter Trutmann

CIAT Bean Programme for Central Afrlca, BP 138 Butare, Rwanda.

Paper presented at

14 - 16 November 1987.

INTRODUCTION
In many reglons of Afrlca bean productlon systems are characterlzed by the e tenslve use of varletal ml>tures by small farmers.
In order to provlde these systems wlth approprlate dlsease
control technologles, lt lS essentlal to understand better the
nature of dlsease development In varletal
mIxtures compared to
pure varlety stands, and to evaluate the effectlveness of varlOUS
strategles
Consequently, thlS reVlew wlll attempt to cover general llterature on
1> Dlsease development In ml>,tures and pure culture:

2) The effect on dlsease of addlng reslstant components to

susceptIble
3) The potentlal of non genetlc methods to control dlsease In
ml,tures

DISEASE DEVELOPMENT IN VARIETAL MIXTURES AND IN PURE STANDS

Are mlYtures worthwhlle

A survey of the llterature shows that

yleld
least as
well as the mean of thelr components. otten more so, and on some
occaSlons outyleld even the hlghest component
(Wolfe 1985 Wolf
and Barrett 1980, Trenbath 1974)
It lS lndeed rare to flnd a
ml'ture yleldlng lower than the mean of ltS components M1Ytures
'ncrease the stablllty of yleld and the securlty of farmers.
In thlS contey the contrlbutlon of ml.tures In reduclng dlsease

development lS an lmportant factor to conslder ln areas where

dlseases llmlt the Yleld of beans
Do varletal mlltures reduce the 1ncldence of dlsease.
and lf so by what mechanlsme ?
In hlS recent reVlew, Wolfe 0"185) notes that, "host ml> tures may
restrlct the spread of dlseeses censlderably reletlve te the mean
of thelr c:omponents, provldlng that the coum 1S produced "lth1n
the
fIeld, then mIxtures have a unlque effect on reduclng pathogen
spread, and hence provlde a degree of protectlon to the susceptble component Four mec:hanlsms are usually stated (Burton 1978,
Burton and Chllvers 1982);

a) Oecrease In spatlal denslty of dusceptlble plants.

The presence of a reslstant component wlth1n a mlxture effectlvely decreases the dens1ty of the susceptible camponent. The
reductlon of the amount of susceptlble tlssue avallable reduces
the maYlmUm e>tent of pathogen spread. In addltlon, the chances
of spore survlval are reduced
The Ideal spaclng arrangement
would be one ln WhlCh susceptible plan\.s do not occur as nelghbours The e> tent to WhlCh susceptIble plants do not OCCLtr as
nelghbours The evtent to WhlCh spatlal denslty affects spread of
dlsease depends on whether the pathogen dlspersal has a steep or
a shallow grad1ent
(1 e.
spore concentrat1on does or does not
drop off rap1dly wlth dlstance away from the lnoculum souree
(McCarthney and Fltt 1985)
Intercropplng dlfferent speCles of
crops wOLlld Sl mul ate a Sl mll ar effect as that prOVl ded by reslstant varletles ln ml, tLtres
bl Barrler prevlded by reslstant plants.
Reslstant var1etles lnterfere w1th the passage of spores from one
suscept1ble plant te an other.
cl Replacement
The replacement of susceptible plants by res1stant components
effectlvely lncreases the surface area occup1ed by reslstant
pl ants As a resLIl t, the ehances of a spore 1 andl ng on SUSCeptlble tlssue are reduced (Surton 1978)
d)

Induced rasa stance.

Re:.slstanc:e ln normally susceptlble plants

15

lndLtced by non-

studIes In WhlCh good control was obt,uned wIth 101-. percentage of

reSI stance In mI,
was In e, perl ments uSIng
the
and the Bar1ey
dl:ea.e systems. (..leger et al 19811
In thlS
host
relatlonshlp 25/ reslstance In a ml.ture resulted In
large decreases In dlsease VIS a VIs that WhlCh was e pected.
If these resLllts can be obtcllned for dlseases of beans ln Afrlca
then there la good reason to belleve that the addItlon of
reslstant varletles to farmera'mlYtures can have a large lmpact
In the short term
If however,
hlgher proportlons of reslstanee
are reql.\1 red to obtaln sLlbstantl al rei'ductlons of dI SeaSei' them
lmpact wlth reslstant varletles wIll be a slower and less measurabIe.
What other strategles could have lmpact In thei' control
of d1sease In mIxtures?
Varlety non speclf1e methods are llhely to be of greater
lmportanee In systems where ml/tures domlnate than In those WhlCh
use sHIgle varletles Llttle llterature was found on thlS tOpIC
Neverthel ess, I t
WOLIl d be worth exp 1 or 1 ng further the rel at 1 ve
merlt of adapted use of
lmproved cultural,
blolog1cal
and
chemlcal teehnlques.

Brownlng J A and Fry 1<. J. (1981). The mul t l l l ne c::onc::ept 1 n theory

practlc::e. In Strategles for the control of cereal
dlsease Ed J.F
and R T Plump Blac::kwell
SClentlflc Publlcatlons, Oxford
Burdon J J.

(1981)
Mec::hanlsm of dlsease control ln heterogeneous
plant populatlons-an ecologlst pOlnt of Vlew
In Plant dlsease epldemlology Ed F.R Sc::ott and
S.A. Balnbrldge. Blacvwell SCIentlflc Publlc::atlons,
Qyford

Burdon J J. and Chl1vers G A.(1982)

Burdon J J and Chllvers G A (1982)
Epldemlology
of
damplng-off In mIved speC::les
seedllng stands. Ann Appl Bl01. 82 233-240
Jeger M J

(1985) 110dellng the dynamlC::s of pathogen populatl0ns

In poplllatlons of plant pathogens thelr dynanl1C::s
and genetlcs Eds M S Wolfe and C E Caten.

O/ford

Jeger M J Grlfflths E and Jones D G (1981) Effects of cereal

cultIvar mn.tures on dlsease epldemlCS c::a\.lsed by
splash dlspersed pathogens In srategles for the
control of c::ereal dlseases Eds J F Jenvln and

>

R T Flumo
o ford

Blaclwell SClentlflc Fubllcatlons.

Jensen N F. and
(3 C.
(1963) "'ew approech to i"n old problem
ln oat proouctlon Farm hesearch :::"'- 4-5
McCartney H.A. and Fltt B D L (1985) Spore dlspersal gradlents
and dlseese development
In Wolt 1985
Trenbath B R.
Terl

(1974) Blomass productlvlty cf mlytures

Adv Agron.::;6 177-210

(1986) Bean

Coop

Wolf M S (1985) The c:urrent st.atus and prospec:ts of mL!! tlllne and
varlety mlYtures for dlsease reslstance
Ann Rev Phytopathol

251-273
Wolf M.S and B.arrett J A (1981) The Agrlc:ultural value of
varletal ml>tures Barley genetlcs IV th Internatlcnel Barley genetlC:s Symposlum Edlnbough 22-24
JLlly 1981
Wolf M.S

and Barrett J A. (1980), Can we lead the pathogen

astray ? Plat Dlsease 64
148-155