The course will tackle the importance of bacterial diseases affecting crops, history and advances in phytobacteriology, general characteristics of phytopathogenic bacteria including anatomy and morphology, physiology and growth of bacteria, chemical composition, nutritional requirements, and reproduction; nature of bacterial diseases and method of detection and diagnosis, taxonomy and classification of phytopathogenic and mollicutes, bacterial disease cycle, ecology and transmission of phytopathogenic bacteria, molecular tools in detection and identification. This course intends to integrate the concepts and principles of phytobacteriology to develop cost-effective, ethical, and ecologically sound management of bacterial diseases affecting crops directly and indirectly.