Combination of Strobilurin and Triazole Chemicals for the Management of Blast Disease in Mushk Budji -Aromatic Rice.

Fayaz Ahmad Mohiddin,Asif B Shikari,Shabir H Wani,Pavla Vachova,Ayman El Sabagh,Najeebul Rehman Sofi,Mohammad Ashraf Ahanger,Shugufta Parveen,Arif H Bhat,Sabry Hassan,Zaffar Bashir,Gazala H Khan,Nazir A Bhat

doi:10.3390/jof7121060

Abstract

Rice blast is considered one of the most important fungal diseases of rice. Although diseases can be managed by using resistant cultivars, the blast pathogen has successfully overcome the single gene resistance in a short period and rendered several varieties susceptible to blast which were otherwise intended to be resistant. As such, chemical control is still the most efficient method of disease control for reducing the losses caused due to diseases. Field experiments were conducted over two successive years, 2018 and 2019, in temperate rice growing areas in northern India. All the fungicides effectively reduced leaf blast incidence and intensity, and neck blast incidence under field conditions. Tricyclazole proved most effective against rice blast and recorded a leaf blast incidence of only 8.41%. Among the combinations of fungicides, azoxystrobin + difenoconazole and azoxystrobin + tebuconazole were highly effective, recording a leaf blast incidence of 9.19 and 10.40%, respectively. The chemical combination mancozeb + carbendazim proved less effective in controlling the blast and it recorded a disease incidence of 27.61%. A similar trend was followed in neck blast incidence with tricyclazole, azoxystrobin + difenoconazole, and azoxystrobin + tebuconazole showing the highest levels of blast reductions. It is evident from the current study that the tested fungicide combinations can be used as alternatives to tricyclazole which is facing the challenges of fungicide resistance development and other environmental concerns and has been banned from use in India and other countries. The manuscript may provide a guideline of fungicide application to farmers cultivating susceptible varieties of rice.

Highlights

With the growing world population, food security and crop protection have become highly important
Budji rice in the local markets as well as its huge the increasing demand of Mushk Budji rice in the local markets as well as its huge export export potential and the challenge of blast disease management, aimofofour our study study was potential and the challenge of blast disease management, thetheaim was to to evaluate and screen some new combination fungicides for the management of rice blast evaluate and screen some new combination fungicides for the management of rice blast disease under temperate Indian conditions
In 2018, they showed a slightly activity as compared to tricyclazole but in 2019, their efficiency was at par with tricyclazole (p < 0.05). These fungicides recorded maximum percent disease control when compared to all other combination fungicides (Figure 3a,b). These combination fungicides were followed by trifloxystrobin + tebuconazole and tricyclazole + mancozeb which recorded a significant reduction in leaf blast incidence in both the years 2018 and

Summary

Introduction

With the growing world population, food security and crop protection have become highly important. Cases of rice blast have been reported from more than 85 countries and it inflicts devastating crop losses. It is the most critical disease of cultivated rice around the world and can cause 100% crop losses if adequate management measures are not adopted [5]. The current major strategies for managing the disease are the development of resistant varieties and application of fungicides [21]. It has been reported that sometimes farmers prefer to grow susceptible rather than resistant varieties because of high consumer demand In such cases, the disease in susceptible rice varieties is managed by the application of chemical fungicides [22]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion