Disease Diagnosis in Tea (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze): Challenges and the Way Forward

Derived from the Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze plant, tea is the most widely consumed natural beverage in the world. Tea is a perennial woody plant. Monoculturing tea on a large scale makes it susceptible to many perennial and seasonal diseases. The leaves, stems, and roots of tea plants are susceptible to fungal, bacterial, and viral pathogens. Tea is predominantly grown in Asian and African regions; hence, conventional methods including symptomology and signs, and microbiological and microscopic methods are mainly used in disease diagnosis and pathogen identification. Accurate and rapid identification of diseases and pathogens is imperative for the sustainability of tea plantations. Thus, the technological advancement in plant disease diagnosis also embraces the global tea industry. This chapter discusses new technological advances in tea disease diagnosis, focusing on molecular biological methods, whole genome sequencing, and remote sensing and image analysis methods. Further, it highlights the challenges in disease diagnosis as a perennial woody plant and pins down available opportunities that could be successfully adopted to overcome the issues.