Crop diversity between 20 and 90 percent crop losses in the Congo. The FAO emergency relief and rehabilitation program is assisting vulnerable returnee populations in the African Great Lakes Region through mass propagation and distribution of CMD resistant or highly tolerant cassava. A well known occurrence of disease susceptibility in crops lacking diversity concerns the 'Gros Michel', a seedless banana that saw world marketing in the 1940s. As the market demand became high for this particular cultivar, growers and farmers began to use the Gros Michel banana almost exclusively. Genetically, these bananas are clones, and because of this lack of genetic diversity,
Crop scouting planting date, planting rate (spacing), row width, tillage operations, crop yields, pesticide names, rates, application dates and who applied them, fertilizer and lime applications and rates, weather patterns, soil type, soil test records (N, P, K, percent organic matter, and pH), irrigation availability, major pest problems, and anything else that could make scouting more effective. This history is very important when assessing signs of crop injuries, because they are generally ambiguous since similar abnormalities can have unrelated causes. It is best to always be prepared when entering the field, as one never know what kind of issues one will find.