Study of foliar rust diseases of wheat crop in Chakwal district using GIS tools

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the major crop of Pakistan's being 9th largest wheat producer country. Unfortunately, wheat crop is always under attack by diseases in which 100 diseases are caused by pathogens and others are due to weeds and different parasites. Mostly rust diseases are air-borne and soil-borne. Foliar rust diseases; yellow/stripe rust, brown/leaf rust, powdery mildew and tan spot infect different parts of plants thus taking high toll of crop yield. This study focused on selected fields of Chakwal district while comparing the disease incidence data for six years (2010-2015). Variation in Climatic Data including Temperature, precipitation and humidity were analyzed for past six years because these variations are responsible for development of rust diseases. Mycotoxin risk assessment tool was used to assess the risk of Fusarium mycotoxins in wheat. Hotspot tool assesses clustering of high and low values thus used to identify hot and cold spots of rust diseases (leaf and stripe rust) in selected fields. Standard deviational ellipses showed the extent of variation of diseases exhibiting the directional trend for past six years. The results demonstrated in the form of maps showed shift of diseases from one region to another depending on the climatic variation. In contrast to previous year, Leaf rust is more prevalent as compared to stripe rust.