Question

Irish Famine of 1845 was caused by
A) Alternaria solani
B) Sclerospora graminicola
C) Phytophthora infestans
D) Fusarium oxysporum

Answer 1

The Great Famine, also named to be Great Hunger or the good Starvation and sometimes mentioned because the potato Famine mostly outside Ireland, was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1849.

Complete answer:
With the foremost severely affected areas within the west and south of eire, where Irish language was dominant, the amount was contemporaneously known in Irish as An Drochshaol loosely translated because of the "hard times."

During the famine, about 1,000,000 people died and a million more emigrated, causing Ireland's population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The crop failures were caused by blight, a disease that destroys both the leaves and therefore the edible roots, or tubers, of the potato plant. The causative agent lately blight is that the water mould. Irish famine was the worst to occur in Europe within the 19th century.

A) Alternaria solani : Alternaria solani causes early blight of potatoes. The leaves develop small oval brown spots with concentric rings (target board symptom).
B) Sclerospora graminicola : The false mildew or green ear disease in Italian millet is caused by the fungus Sclerospora graminicola. Downy growth of the pathogen, shredding of infected leaves, and bad formation of floral organs is common in Italian millet.
C) Phytophthora infestans : Phytophthora infestans causes blight of potatoes and infrequently of tomatoes also . The Great Irish famine of 1845 1847 was thanks to the blight of potato.
D) Fusarium oxysporum : Many economically important plants (e.g., cotton, pigeon pea) show sudden signs of wilting thanks to blockage of tracheary elements by growth of fungus, Fusarium especially F. oxysporum, F. udum.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘C’ i.e, Phytophthora infestans.

Note: The potato, which had become a staple crop in Ireland by the 18th century, was appealing therein it had been a hardy, nutritious, and calorie-dense crop and comparatively easy to grow within the Irish soil. By the first 1840s almost half Irish population-but primarily the agricultural poor -had come to depend almost exclusively on the potato for his or her diet.