Blast disease of basmati rice and its management

Abstract

Basmati rice is an important staple food grain crop in the world. Basmati rice is an important export commodity among the food grains. The biotic and abiotic factors are adversely affected the Basmati rice but Basmati rice blast caused by Pyricularia oryzae Cavara (synonym Pyricularia grisea Sacc). The anamorph of Magnaporthe grisea (Herbert), is one of the most destructive and wide spread diseases as compared to other diseases of Basmati rice. It causes leaf blast, neck blast and panicle blast of paddy. This disease generally causes yield loss of 10-20 percent but in severe cases yield loss may reach up to 80 percent. Management of blast disease using healthy seed, resistance varieties, many biological controls like as T. harzianum, T. viride and P. fluorescens @10g/kg by seed treatment and foliar spray. The chemical control by fungicides such as carbendazim, tricyclazole, isoprothilane, tebuconazole, hexaconazole reduced leaf but not neck blast; on the contrary, tricyclazole was effective against neck blast and panicle blast.