Phytopathology is the scientific study of plant diseases caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Plant pathology also involves the study of pathogen identification, disease etiology, disease cycles, economic impact, plant disease epidemiology, plant disease resistance, how plant diseases affect humans and animals, pathosystem genetics, and management of plant diseases. Control of plant diseases is crucial to the reliable production of food, and it provides significant reductions in agricultural use of land, water, fuel and other inputs. Plant diseases are a normal part of nature and one of many ecological factors that help keep the hundreds of thousands of living plants and animals in balance with one another. Plant diseases can be broadly classified according to the nature of their primary causal agent, either infectious or noninfectious. Infectious plant diseases are caused by a pathogenic organism such as a fungus, bacterium, mycoplasma, virus, viroid, nematode, or parasitic flowering plant. An infectious agent is capable of reproducing within or on its host and spreading from one susceptible host to another. Noninfectious plant diseases are caused by unfavourable growing conditions, including extremes of temperature, disadvantageous relationships between moisture and oxygen, toxic substances in the soil or atmosphere, and an excess or deficiency of an essential mineral. Plant diseases are a normal part of nature and one of many ecological factors that help keep the hundreds of thousands of living plants and animals in balance with one another. Any environmental factor that favors the growth of parasites or disease transmitters or that is unfavorable to the growth of the plants will lead to Increases in the likelihood of infection and the amount of destruction caused by parasitic disease.