**7. Conclusion**

Parasitic plants are important hinderance in crop production and productivity, especially for perennial horticultural crops. In addition to their direct influence as a modulator of source to sink balance, they also are known vectors of obnoxious pathogens such as viruses and phytoplasmas. However, there seems not to have been equal, if not more, attention from the plant scientists on these multifaceted pests, as in case of other pests such as the pathogens and the insect-harbivores. Although there are at least 4,500 species of such parasitic plants forming some 1% of the angiosperms, very few of them have been studied in sufficient details. The extent of crop damage and their roles as pathogens vectors of most of them are not well-known. Considering the exploding population and its pressure on the limited resources of the planet, and the increasing demand for food and nutrition, harnessing each and every potential means of crop improvement and tackling all the potential causes of crop loss is the need of the hour. While the genetic potential of the important crops have reached near the maximum, sustainable management of the pests and pathogens is the most important step in this direction. Being a direct and indirect hinderance of crop production, as discussed in this chapter, the parasitic plants, therefore, demand further and deeper future research.
