A rapidly evolving pathogen from Europe may spell doom for India’s potato yield, an essential staple crop that also fetches good income to millions of farmers.
A rapidly evolving pathogen from Europe may spell doom for India’s potato yield, an essential staple crop that also fetches good income to millions of farmers.
Scientists at the West Bengal State University have found 19 unique and highly aggressive variants of Phytophthora infestans, a microorganism that causes late blight disease in potato shrinking it from outside and rotting inside. These variants are from the lineage of European 13_A2 genotype and were responsible for the 2013-14 epidemic of late blight in West Bengal that shrank potato yield by 8,000 kg per hectare resulting in many indebted farmers ending their lives.
Pathogen population diversity, studied in eastern and north eastern India, was found to be highest in areas near international borders with Bangladesh and Nepal. Both these countries regularly import potatoes from outside.
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