From the Editor

Banana is a tropical fruit that is consumed widely around the world and has the advantage of being available from cropping for the whole year round.  Despite such availability, its shelf life is relatively short and is quickly indicated by the change in peel colour. Dr. Maratree of the Mahasarakham University, has studied this problem and assessed ways in which to extend the shelf life of the banana.

            The importance of maize as a crop in Thailand is reflected in the length of time it has been cultivated, now for more than a century.  Inevitably, many maize diseases have developed in the time, some being at epidemic proportion throughout this time.  Among these, downy mildew (DM) disease has been shown to be one of the most severe ones.  Chutimun and co-workers found two races of DM pathogen over Thailand maize belt.

            In an associated study, Peerawan and colleagues found banded leaf and sheath blight disease in some maize planting to be present in an area of Thailand. This contradicts earlier understanding that believes this disease not to be a problem for maize cropping in the country.

            Meanwhile, Prachoom and his team of researchers screened for maize hybrids that were resistant to some specific diseases.  The results of this work are reported upon in this bulletin.  Moreover, Dr.Thammasak studied the effects of spore suspension concentration and temperature on infection of seedling maize for southern corn rust.  Meanwhile, Dr. Sarun and Sanit investigated the cultural practices, input use and benefit/cost of maize production in both the first and second cropping season for maize grown in the northeast region of Thailand.  In a separate study, Dr. Somchai studied the drought responses and nitrogen partitioning in maize genotypes under different soil moisture regimes.

            Details of each topic described above are presented in this issue.  Also, as usual, the full papers can be obtained from the authors at the address provided.  We hope you enjoy learning more about our works.

 

Teerasak Manupeerapan

Editor