An overview of chilli leaf curl disease and its management using artificial intelligence and resistance breeding
摘要
High-input agriculture is becoming less practical in the current agricultural scenario. Low-input agriculture is the call of the hour to face the mounting challenges such as climate change, diminishing natural resources to feed the increasing population. Vegetable production requires significant inputs due to its high demand for nutrients, intensive labour, irrigation needs, and pest management strategies. Among vegetables, pesticide use intensity is notably high in crops like chilli, tomato, eggplant and others. However, maximum pesticide use is recorded for chilli (5.13 kg a.i. ha− 1) mainly due to the incidence of chilli leaf curl virus disease (ChiLCVD). An efficient, affordable, environmentally secure, and long-lasting method of managing diseases is to utilize host plant resistance and represents a paradigm shift in farming practices from high-input system to low-input system. This review provides a comprehensive overview of ChiLCVD and discusses the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in disease detection and management. The review also emphasises the significance of resistance breeding to develop chilli lines suited for low-input agriculture through multidisciplinary approaches by combining conventional breeding methods and modern genome editing techniques.