Abstract

A Keynote paper presented at the Second Australasian Soilborne Diseases Symposium, Lorne, 5–8 March 2001

The use of models for predicting disease occurrence or for providing decision support packages to manage soilborne plant diseases offers many potential benefits for reducing the impact of disease, particularly through better targeting of resources required for implementing control strategies. The development of such packages has been very limited, particularly when compared to what is available for the leaf diseases, and this is most probably due to the greater complexity of the soil environment. A take-all prediction model has been developed which estimates inoculum level, disease occurrence, crop yields and economic outcomes based on a range of environmental, management and financial options. The model has been adopted by industry and is made available to growers through a network of accredited agronomists. The features of the take-all model and its potential as a platform for the development of other soilborne disease models are discussed.