Quantifying the yield risk of planting CMV infected lentil seed in the southern region

The aim of this project is to quantify the yield risk associated with planting CMV infected lentil seed in the Southern region. To do this, field experiments were conducted in key lentil growing areas over 2 years. This was done by:determining the impact of sowing different levels of CMV-infected seed on:Disease progress throughout the seasonGrain yieldSubsequent incidence of virus level in harvested seed for all treatments.Assessing the rate of CMV transmission via seed for different lentil cultivars, andInvestigating lentil varietal susceptibility to CMV infectionThe long-term outcome of this project is to reduce the levels of plant viruses such as CMV and minimise yield losses resulting from these plant pathogens in cropping systems in south-eastern Australia.