Screening of African rice, Oryza glaberrima Steud, for resistance to the African rice gall midge Orseolia oryzivora Harris and Gagné

Abstract

Two hundred seventy-three lines of the cultivated African rice species Oryza glaberrima Steud were screened in a paddy screenhouse at the National Cereals Research Institute, near Bida, Niger State, Nigeria for resistance to the African rice gall midge, Orseolia oryzivora Harris and Gagne, an increasingly important pest of lowland rice in Nigeria. Twenty entries which showed no galls in the screenhouse evaluation were retested under natural infestation in a gall midge-endemic field location near Abakaliki, Ebonyi State. Whereas the susceptible check variety, FARO 37, had 39.6 % of tillers infested 60 days after transplanting, damage in the test entries ranged from 0 to 3.7 %, an indication that they were all highly to moderately resistant to the pest. Greater host plant resistance is a central requirement for more effective management of O. oryzivora. Using resistance genes from O. glaberrima is a promising approach to achieving this.