ONE PHYTOPATHOLOGISTS GROWTH THROUGH IPM TO HOLISTIC PLANT HEALTH - THE KEY TO APPROACHING GENETIC YIELD POTENTIAL

I relate my becoming a phytopathologist and my very satisfying growth into and beyond IPM to holistic plant health, and puzzle over paradigm s that have prevented our accepting the overwhelming logic of(a) seeki ng defensible disease-loss data to justify funding and guide research and management priorities, (b) managing genetic diversity to retard pa thogen development, (c) conserving genetic diversity in situ, and (d) educating and training general practitioner plant doctors. These multi disciplinary health care professionals are key to overcoming sources o f stress that cause major world crops to yield only 15-20% of their ge netic potential, on average. Thus, plant doctors give hope for approac hing attainable yield and feeding a hungry world-if, simultaneously, h uman population growth is reduced. The plant health movement has the p otential to effect the greatest change in world agriculture since the Green Revolution, and the DPH/M to become plant agriculture's most imp ortant single degree program.