Barley Diseases: Introduction, Etiology, Epidemiology, and Their Management

Abstract

Barley is regarded as the globe’s fourth major cereal crop. A variety of airborne, seedborne, and soilborne infective agents attack barley, causing a variety of barley diseases and substantial losses in agricultural output. Brown and yellow rusts, smut, net blotches, spot blotches, barley yellow dwarf, and molya disease are among the most serious diseases. In general, employing integrated disease management approaches is the best way to handle barley diseases. Growing resistant or tolerant varieties with the fewest foliar fungicides is the most effective approach for barley disease treatments. However, managing soilborne pathogens in barley plants is problematic due to a deficiency in distinguishing symptoms for diagnosis and the absence of fungicides or nematicides that are effective for these pathogens. Recently, nanotechnology has driven the advancement of creative concepts and agricultural productivity with a broad scope for managing plant infections and pests. The antimicrobial properties of metallic and metal oxide nanoparticulates such as silver, selenium, titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, and iron oxide have been extensively researched. In this chapter, we go over barley disease and the role of nanomaterials in reducing the incidence of disease and diagnosis, as well as barley seed germination, physiology, and nutritional quality of barley grain.