Soybean Diseases in a Changing Climate: Major Pathogen Threats, Integrated Management and Emerging Strategies with Special Reference to India and Gujarat

Abstract

Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is among the world's most important oilseed and protein crops and contributes substantially to global food, feed, edible oil and industrial supply chains. Its high protein and oil content, wide adaptability and capacity for biological nitrogen fixation make it an economically and ecologically valuable crop. Soybean productivity, however, is constrained by a diverse complex of fungal, oomycete, bacterial, viral and nematode pathogens that attack roots, stems, foliage, pods and seeds at successive stages of crop growth. The relative importance of individual diseases varies with cultivar, pathogen population, cropping system and prevailing weather, so that disease management must be regionally interpreted rather than uniformly prescribed. In India, disease pressure is particularly relevant to the major soybean tracts of central and western India, where rust, anthracnose, charcoal rot, aerial blight, yellow mosaic disease, bacterial pustule and plant-parasitic nematodes can all cause economic loss in favourable seasons. Gujarat represents a distinctive production environment in which monsoon variability, high temperature, intermittent moisture stress, soil characteristics and intensive cropping jointly shape the disease spectrum, yet state-specific epidemiological information remains comparatively limited. This review synthesises published literature on the biology, symptomatology and epidemiology of the major soybean diseases; examines the disease scenario in India with particular reference to Gujarat; and evaluates the components of integrated disease management, including host resistance, healthy seed, cultural practices, biological control, vector management and judicious chemical protection. Advances in molecular diagnostics, marker-assisted and genomic breeding, genome editing, remote sensing and artificial intelligence are appraised for their potential to shift soybean disease management from reactive treatment towards predictive, location-specific prevention. Priority research gaps and future perspectives for sustainable soybean protection are identified.