Fungal diseases of beans and green beans

Abstract

The Leguminosae plant family comprises a large number of agricultural species, including important crops of field, vegetable and staple plants. According to the biological characteristics and significance for human consumption, the most prominent crop is bean, traditionally grown in Serbia either as dry bean or as a vegetable - green beans. Production of dry and green beans in our country have the trend of reduction of sowed areas, with small average yields and enormous international trade deficits. Due to these reasons and high domestic demand, there is great potential for dry and green bean production in Serbia. In many parts of the world, plant pathogenic fungi and fungi-like organisms cause high, and in some cases total, annual yield losses. On the other hand, mycoses of bean in our country are greatly understudied, even on basic levels such as presence and distribution of fungal pathogens. In this paper, we summarize the current knowledge on the most important pathogenic fungi infecting beans worldwide, particularly related to losses, symptomatology, survival and dispersal means. Furthermore, appropriate and available disease control measures are discussed as an encouragement and support for domestic production in obtaining high and safe yields.