The objective of this study was to develop yield loss equations for the Asian soybean rust pathosystem and to verify the potential use of measures of reflectance to quantify yield loss due to this disease. The experiments were carried out in Londrina, PR, in the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 growing seasons. Tests were repeated at different sowing dates, in order to obtain variable disease intensity at different phenological stages of the crop. The experimental design was complete randomized blocks with four replicates. The treatments were characterized by different stages at the beginning of fungicide sprays on cultivars BRS 133 and Coodetec 217. Disease severity was estimated at weekly intervals and was used to calculate the area under disease progress curve (AUDPC). The reflectance measurements were done with multispectral radiometer and the normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) was calculated for wavelengths 660 nm and 810 nm. The variables AUDPC and NDVI presented high correlation with yield. Average R² was 91.5% and 86.7%, respectively. Variations in the severity of disease between crops affected the relationship AUDPC x yield. Reflectance measures may have been affected by interference of the growing season and the different cultivars used in experiments.
Glycine max; Phakopsora pachyrhizi; remote sensing; radiometer; NDVI
