Heavy infection of Melampsora leaf rust on Populus deltoides

Poplar (Populus deltoides Bartr. ex Marsh) is an industrially important tree grown by numerous farmers along with agriculture crops on their farmland in northwestern India. The tree has largely met the multifunctional expectations of farmers, foresters, wood based industry, scientists, financial institutions, insurance sector and policy planners. The tree is considered useful for meeting the raw material needs of a very large wood based industry, diversification of harmful paddy-wheat rotation to multiple cropping, creating evergreen revolution by making the agriculture crop production land-use sustainable, increasing biodiversity on farm land, increasing tree cover to meet the objectives of Indian Forest Policy, generating employment in rural locations and industrial units, meeting energy needs of firewood for domestic and industrial sector, fast mitigation of carbon by sequestering it in trees and locking it in forest products, and as a mean for ameliorating environment. In many locations, the tree has made a significant impact in transforming rural agriculture farming with integrated agri-sylvan landscape, and in creating significant green cover never ever seen before its introduction around five decadesback (Dhiman, 2012a; 2012b). It is grown as a cash crop and is harvested at a short rotation of four years onward depending on the farmers' financial needs, wood demand and supply, wood prices in open markets, etc.

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36808/if/2022/v148i6/169250

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