Major crop disease outbreaks

Disease epidemics are an on-going concern

	Year	Crop	Disease	Region	Impact
Symptoms of wheat blast CC BY-SA 4.0	2016-17	Wheat	Wheat Blast	Bangladesh India	First emergence of wheat blast in Asia. Average disease losses of 30%. Total crop loss in some cases.
Image: Institute of Plant Virology, Italy	2014	Olive	Xylella fastidosa	Southern Europe	Over 1 million trees infected, up to 40% rise in olive oil prices. Olive oil production in Tuscany reduced by half.
MLN-Infected Maize CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 CIMMYT	2011	Maize	Maize lethal necrosis disease	East Africa	Disease widespread across maize growing areas. Estimated national losses of 10% per year. Individual losses up to 100%.
CC BY-SA 2.0 by CIAT	2012	Coffee	Rust	Central America Caribbean	Over $1 billion in damage to coffee plants. Up to 500,000 job losses. Many farms lost over 75% of production.
Photo: Jeff Ellis	2010	Wheat	Stripe rust	Asia North America	Epidemic causing 40% losses.
CC BY 2.0 by USDAgov	2010s	Citrus	Greening disease	Florida	Massive impact on Florida citurs industry with no good control methods available. Up to 75% of trees in southeast US infected.
	1999	Wheat	Stem rust	East Africa Middle East	New race (Ug99) spreading throughout Africa and Middle East, threatening world supply.
Valencia citrus canker 1d CC BY-SA 2.0 Scot Nelson	1990s-2000s	Citrus	Canker	Florida	Unsuccessful tree eradication program abandoned in 2006.
Scot Nelson Papaya ringspot (PRSV) 9 CC BY-SA 2.0	1990s	Papaya	Ring spot virus	Hawaii	Nearly led to collapse of papaya industry. GM variety introduced widely credited with saving the industry.
Scot Nelson Banana Panama wilt 2 CC BY-SA 2.0	1990s	Banana	Panama disease tropical race 4	Southeast Asia	Currently threatening to wipe out the Cavendish banana.
USDAgov Link (CC BY 2.0)	1989	Cacao	Witches' broom	Brazil	Losses up to 100%. Overall wiped out 75% of production.
CC BY-SA 2.0 by CIAT	1975	Coffee	Rust	Central America South America	First report of growing outbreak that continues today.
Eric McKenzie Pest and Disease Image Library, Australia CC BY 3.0 Link	1970	Corn	Southern corn leaf blight	USA	Scattered in 1968-69. Full scale epidemic in 1970 due to wide use of a single susceptible corn background.
Bacterial leaf blight   CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 by IRRI Images	1960s	Rice	Bacterial leaf blight	Southeast Asia	Yield losses up to 80%.
Donald Groth, Louisiana State University AgCenter CC BY 3.0, Link	1942	Rice	Brown spot disease	India	Factor in Great Bengal Famine. 2 million people died of starvation.
	1935, 1953	Wheat	Stem rust	North America	Epidemics in Great Plains. Some states with >50% yield losses.
Scot Nelson Banana Panama wilt 2 CC BY-SA 2.0	1920 - 1950s	Banana	Panama disease	Central America South America	Gros Michel variety nearly wiped out. Led to adoption of the Cavendish variety resistant to Panama disease, but inferior in taste.
	1916	Wheat	Stem rust	North America	Devastating epidemic controlled by eradication of alternate host, barberry.
Downy Mildew on 'Valiant' cultivar CC BY-SA 4.0 by David S. Jones, Patricia McManus	1878 - 1885	Grapes	Downy mildew	France	Spread throughout Europe with devastating impact on wine industry. Led to use of copper in Bordeaux mix, the first chemical widely used to protect plants.
CC BY-SA 2.0 by CIAT	1868	Coffee	Rust	Sri Lanka	Wiped out coffee crop. Brits become tea drinkers.
CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by benmillett	1840s	Potato	Late blight	Ireland	Major factor in Irish Potato Famine. 2.5 million people died or emigrated.