Cereals are at risk from numerous diseases due to the level of intensification necessary for profitable production since the 1970s.
More recently varietal diversification, good plant breeding and the availability of effective fungicides have played a prominent part in cereal disease control.
The demise of UK straw burning in the 1980s also increased the importance of good disease control.
Wheat may suffer from the attack of insects at the root; from blight, which primarily affects the leaf or straw, and ultimately deprives the grain of sufficient nourishment; from mildew on the ear; and from gum of different shades, which lodges on the chaff or cups in which the grain is deposited.
Fungicides used on wheat, grouped by type, with examples of the active chemical ingredient: