The use of spore-catching equipment detecting diseases of grain crops (review)

In order to manage the phytosanitary situation on the sowings and get the maximum yields of high quality, at first it is necessary to estimate the condition of the protected crop. Based on this estimation, in future it is possible to establish the most effective and economically justified protection system. Grain crops are the most important strategic crops that ensure food security around the world. According to the FAO the world crop losses caused by pests have reached up to 40 % where fungal pathogens have played the most significant role. Therefore, the most important task of phytosanitary monitoring is the timely detection and identification of the disease before the beginning of symptoms at the earliest stages of pathogen development, which becomes possible when the infectious beginning of the disease has been detected. When monitoring fungal diseases, spore-catching equipment allow this issue to be solved. The purpose of the current review was to describe the existing developments of spore-catching equipment for monitoring grain crop diseases and to identify promising areas for using devices on crops to improve protective measures’ efficiency. The introduction has briefly described the classical methods of monitoring and the relatively new methods currently used. In the main part there has been considered a spore-catching equipment developed and used both in foreign and domestic practice. There have been analyzed the methods of using spore-catching equipment and given the examples of the use of these devices in monitoring crop diseases. In the conclusions there have been summarized the trends in the development of technical support for phytosanitary monitoring and shown areas that have been found promising for further research.