Integration of Organic Amendments and Antagonists for the Management of Sheath Blight in Aromatic Rice

Abstract

The effect of integration of organic amendments with fungal or bacterial antagonists ( Trichoderma harzianum and Pseudomonas fluorescens ) applied as soil treatment was evaluated against sheath blight disease in Basmati rice caused by Rhizoctonia solani under field conditions. Neem cake + T. harzianum was found to be the most effective treatment in reducing the disease incidence by up to 57.27% and disease severity by 54.77% followed by farm yard manure (FYM) + T. harzianu m, which resulted in the reduction of disease incidence to 53.77% and disease severity to 52.29%, respectively. Among all the organic amendments, reduction of sheath blight was lowest with sawdust + P. fluorescens with disease incidence of 40.94% and disease severity of 35.29%. Maximum increase in grain yield (39.44%) and 1000-grain weight of rice (29.19g) were recorded with neem cake + T. harzianum treatment followed by treatments FYM + T. harzianum and pressmud + T. harzianum . Minimum increase in grain yield (9.76%) and 1000-grain weight (11.53%) were recorded with the treatment Sawdust + P. fluorescens.