Fungicides

The platform gives an overview of which fungicides are authorised where, as well as information about efficacy and resistance. It features:

• Fungicide efficacy ranking in eight wheat diseases for several different countries.
• A review of problems related to fungicide resistance and links to fungicide resistance platforms.
• A list of fungicide trade names in seven different countries.

Decision support

Control thresholds are important tools in deciding when to apply a fungicide in an IPM programme. The methods used for monitoring and the specific thresholds used in different countries are summarised for six wheat diseases. It features:

• An overview and links to wheat decision support systems in Europe.
• Disease thresholds for six diseases with control recommendations for several countries.

Monitoring for diseases in wheat

For the diseases eyespot, yellow rust, brown rust, powdery mildew, septoria leaf blotch and tan spot, users can click an icon to change information on the right hand side of a dedicated web page. On the right you can see an example of the information available for powdery mildew.

Cultural practices

To minimise disease problems, several cultural measures have been recognised and described. General principles for IPM are given. It features:

• Specific information on cultural measures that have an impact on seven diseases.
• References to the information described can be extracted from the pages.

Pathogens

Pathogen characteristics such as virulence and aggressiveness play a significant role for evaluating the risks of disease epidemics in varieties possessing various sources of disease resistance. Since many of the most damaging pathogens, such as rusts, may be spread by the wind across national borders, updated information about pathogen features in neighbouring countries serve as an ‘early warning’ for farmers. It features:

• Frequency of pathotypes of yellow rust across Europe
• A summary of pathogen virulence characteristics for wheat yellow rust pathotype (‘race’) distribution in six European countries (1993-2009 for Denmark, 2000-2009 for six countries).
• Historical information about virulence structure and race dynamics in yellow rust is shown. This information is used to assess risk of yellow rust epidemics in currently grown varieties.
• Fusarium head blight: which Fusarium species produces which mycotoxins and how to minimise attack and mycotoxins.
• Fusarium head blight: Ranking of cultivar disease resistance in three groups, with data from five countries.

Varieties and grain yields

The cultivars grown vary to a great extent between countries. Grain yield may vary significantly across varieties and environments due to genetic yield potential and environmental stresses, including climate and disease load. It features:

• Links to national variety databases.
• Yield levels in wheat and estimated yield losses from specific diseases in different countries.
• Survey on pesticide use and yield responses to fungicides in EU countries.