Diseases of

Rice
 DISEASES OF RICE

Blast Pyricularia oryzae

Bacterial Leaf Blight Xanthomonas oryzae pv.oryzae
Rice tungro disease Rice tungro virus (RTSV, RTBV)
Brown Spot Bipolaris oryzae (Syn. Helminthosporium oryzae)
Sheath rot Sarocladium oryzae
Sheath Blight Rhizoctonia Solani
False Smut Ustilaginoidea virens
Leaf streak Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzicola
 RICE BLAST

• Rice blast, caused by a fungus, causes lesions on leaves,

stems, peduncles, panicles, seeds, and even roots.
• The entire genomes of the rice blast fungus and rice have
been sequenced and that Magnaporthe oryzae is the first
plant pathogenic fungus to have its genome sequenced
and released to the public.
• Symptoms
• The symptoms of rice blast include lesions that can be found
on all parts of the plant, including leaves, leaf collars, necks,
panicles, pedicels, and seeds.
• However, the most common and diagnostic symptom,
diamond shaped lesions, of rice blast occur on the leaves,
whereas lesions on the sheaths are relatively rare.
• Rice collars.
• The collar of a rice plant refers
to the junction of the leaf and
the stem sheath.
• Rice necks and panicles.
• at the node by the rice blast
fungus and infection leads to a
condition called rotten neck or
neck blast
• Infection of the necks can be very
destructive, causing failure of the seeds to
fill (a condition called blanking) or causing
the entire panicle to fall over as if rotted.
• Use of tolerant varieties (CO 47, CO 50, ADT 36, ADT 37, ASD
16, ASD 20, ADT 39, ASD 19, TPS 3, White ponni, ADT 44, IR
64 and IR 36)
• Chemical methods
• Dry seed treatment
• Thiram or captan or carboxin or carbendazim at 2 g/kg of seeds.
• Treat the seeds at least 24 hours prior to soaking for sprouting.
• The treated seeds can be stored for 30 days without any loss in
viability.
• Wet seed treatment
• Carbendazim or Tricyclozole at 2 g/lit of water for 1 kg of seed.
• Treat the seeds with talc based formulation of P.
fluorescens (Pf1) @ 10g/kg of seed and soak in 1lit of water
overnight.
• Seedling dip with Pseudomonas fluorescens
• Stagnate water to a depth of 2.5cm over an area of 25m2 in the main
field. Sprinkle 2.5 kg of the talc based formulation of Pseudomonas
fluorescens (Pf1) and mix with stagnated water. The seedlingsp ulled out
from the nursery are to be soaked for 30 min. in the stagnated water and
then transplanted.
• (Note: Biocontrol agents are compatible with biofertilizers; Biofertilizers
and biocontrol agents can be mixed together for seed soaking; Fungicides
and biocontrol agents are incompatible)
• Carbendazim 50WP @ 500g/ha (or)
• Tricyclozole 75 WP @ 500g/ha (or)
• Metominostrobin 20 SC @ 500ml/ha (or)
• Azoxystrobin 25 SC @ 500 ml/ha
Prediction or Forecasting for Leaf Blast:
• In India, Padmanabhan (1965) reported the following
forecast rules:
• (i) Seed bed infection occur if minimum temperature is less
than or equal to 24-26°C for 4-7 days;
• (ii) Leaf blast occur during tillering if temperature if minimum
temperature is below 24°C for 5 days during post
transplanting and tillering, and if RH is greater than or equal
•
to. 90%; and
• (iii) Neck infection occur if condition in September and
October favor leaf infection and temperature are 20-24°C for
a number coincides with RH is greater than or equal to 90%.
Severe leaf blast is conditional for neck blast to occur.
 BACTERIAL LEAF BLIGHT

• Bacterial leaf blight is said to have been first seen by

farmers in the Fukuoka area of Japan in 1884.
• The disease was first reported in India by Srinivasan in
1959 from Maharashtra, where it was widespread and
destructive since 1951. The disease appeared in an
epiphytotic form in Shahabad district of Bihar in 1963 on
variety BR-34.
 Pale yellow phase

Kresek phase
•Seed treatment with bleaching powder (100g/l) and zinc sulfate (2%)
reduces the bacterial blight (or)
•Seed treatment - Seed soaking for 8 hours in Agrimycin (0.025%) and
wettable ceresan (0.05%) followed by hot water treatment for 30 min
at 52-54oC(or)
•Seed soaking for 8 hours in ceresan (0.1%) and treat with
Streptocyclin (3g in 1 litre)
•Grow Tolerant varieties (IR 20, IR 72, PONMANI and TKM 6).
•Spray Streptomycin sulphate + Tetracycline combination 300 g +
Copper oxychloride 1.25kg/ha. If necessary repeat 15 days later.
•Application of bleaching powder @ 5 kg/ha in the irrigation water is
recommended at the kresek stage.
 RICE TUNGRO
• Rice tungro disease is caused by the combination of two viruses, which are
transmitted by leafhoppers.
• It causes leaf discoloration, stunted growth, reduced tiller numbers and sterile or
partly filled grains.

Symptoms
• Plants affected by tungro exhibit stunting and reduced tillering.
• Their leaves become yellow or orange-yellow, may also have rust-colored spots.
• Discoloration begins from leaf tip and extends down to the blade or the lower leaf
portion
 Pathogen and transmission
• Rice tungro disease is caused by the combination of two viruses
(RTSV and RTBV), which are transmitted by leafhoppers.
• Tungro virus disease is transmitted by leafhoppers, wherein the
most efficient vector is the green leafhopper, Nephotettix
virescens.
• Leaf yellowing can be minimized by spraying 2 % urea mixed with
Mancozeb at 2.5 gm/lit.
 Special detection technique:
• Collect leaf samples at 6 a.m.

• The top 10 cm portion of the leaf is immersed in a solution

containing 2 g of iodine and 6 g of potassium iodide in 100 ml
of water for 15 minutes or 10 ml of tincture of iodine + 140
ml of water for one hour. Washed in water for detection.

• Tungro infected leaves develop dark blue streaks.

 BROWN SPOT
• The disease attacks all parts of the host, usually excepting the roots, in
all stages of development.
• The fungus attacks the crop from seedling to milky stage in main field.
• In emerged disease affected seedlings, necrotic lesions appear in the
coleoptile when its tip turns brown to dark-brown and the infection
spreads to the mesocotyl and ultimately the seedlings are completely
destroyed.
• pathogen produces a toxin (Cochliobolin) which inhibits the growth of
the roots and affects respiration of leaves.
• The disease-causing fungi can also
penetrate grains, causing 'pecky rice', a
term used to describe spotting and
discoloration of grains.
• In certain rice varieties, brown spot
lesions can be mistaken for blast lesions.
To confirm, check if spots are circular,
brownish, and have a gray center
surrounded by a reddish margin.
 Control:
• Growing resistant varieties like ADT 44, PY 4, CORH1, CO44, Cauvery,
Bhavani, TPS 4 and Dhan.
• Seed treatment with tricyclazole followed by spraying of mancozeb
+ tricyclazole at tillering and late booting stages gave good control
of the disease.
 SHEATH ROT
• The typical sheath rot lesion starts at the uppermost leaf sheath
enclosing the young panicles.
• It appears oblong or as irregular spot with dark reddish, brown
margins, and gray center or brownish gray throughout.
• Usually several spots are observed and these spots enlarge and
combine or grow together and can cover most of the leaf sheath.
• Panicles remain within the sheath or may partially emerge.
• Affected leaf sheaths may have abundant whitish powdery fungal
growth (mycelium) visible on the outer surface. Panicles that have
not emerged rot and the florets turn red-brown to dark brown.
• Management
• Use disease free healthy seed
• Spray Carbendazim 500g or Edifenphos 1L or Mancozeb 2 kg/ha at boot leaf
stage and 15 days later.
• Triazole fungicides and application of streptocycline is also recommended if
there is a complex of pathogens
• Soil application of gypsum (500 kg/ha) in two splits.
• Application of Neem Seed Kernal Extract (NSKE) 5% or neem oil 3 %
or Ipomoea or Prosopis leaf powder extract 25 Kg/ha. First spray at boot leaf
stage and second 15 days later.
• False smut does not replace all or part of the kernel with a mass of black spores, rather sori form erupting
through the palea and lemma forming a ball of mycelia, the outermost layers are spore-producing

• Infection usually occurs during the reproductive and ripening

stages, infecting a few grains in the panicle and leaving the rest
healthy.

Grains Transformed into a Greenish Black Smut Balls Smut Balls Bursts and
Mass of Yellow Fruiting with a Velvetty Appearance becomes Black in
Bodies Color
DISEASES OF WHEAT
Black or stem rust Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici

Yellow or stripe rust Puccinia striiformis

Orange or leaf rust Puccinia recondita

Loose smut Ustilago tritici

Karnal bunt Telletia indica

Flag smut Urocystis agropyri

Hill bunt or stinking smut Telletia caries and T. foetida

Powdery mildew Blumeria graminis f. sp. tritici
Take all Gaumanomyces graminis var tritici
Tundu or yellow ear rot Corynebacterium tritici + Anguina
tritici
Molya disease Heterodera avenae (Nematode)
 WHEAT RUST

• oval pustules (uredinia) of

powdery, brick-red
urediniospores break through
the epidermis (Figures 1, 2).

1 2
• On barberry
• Pycnia appear on barberry plants in the spring,
usually in the upper leaf surfaces.
• They are often in small clusters and exude
pycniospores in a sticky honeydew
• The aecial cups are yellow and sometimes elongate
and extend up to 5 mm from the leaf surface
 Pathogen Biology
• Rust fungi are obligate parasites.
• Puccinia graminis is heteroecious.
• Puccinia graminis is macrocyclic, producing all five
spore stages: basidiospores, pycniospores (spermatia),
aeciospores, urediniospores (uredospores), and
teliospores.
• Anton deBary, in 1865, first recognized the nature of
the heteroecious life cycle, John Craigie, a Canadian
scientist, studied the pathogen in 1927.
• In 1933, late professor K. C. Mehta worked on the problem
of annual recurrence of rust in India and solved the mystery.
• He proved that the uredospores produced on the hills are
responsible for the annual recurrence of rust disease in the
plains of India.
• According to him:
➢Uredospore’s can survive in the summer in hills (at higher
altitude of 1300-2500 metres).
➢They survive on self sown wheat plants and tillers. The
atmospheric conditions on high altitude and the low
temperature help for the survival of uredospores.
• Thus, he concluded that uredospore’s produced on the
hilly crops particularly in the region of Himalayas,
Nepal hills for northern plains and Nilgiri and Palni hills
as well as Panchgani of Western Ghats for the southern
plains are the causal organisms for the annual recurrence
of the rust disease in the plains of India.
• S Nagrajan in 1987 described in detail the Puccinia Path in the
absence of barbery bushes.
• Urediniospores of Puccinia graminis rapidly lose viability
during the hot, dry, summer months in the plains of India, but
survive in large numbers throughout the year in the Nilgiri and
Palney Hills of South India. Their survival in these areas is also
favored by the year-round presence of wheat and other
collateral hosts.
➢ In India, barberry, the alternate host, does not play any role.
During November, when there is a month-old wheat crop in
central India, tropical cyclones that cross Tamil Nadu or
Andhra Pradesh and dissipate over central India transport
large quantities of Puccinia graminis urediniospores.
 3. Use of • Sulphur dusting @ 35-40 kg/ha
Fungicides • Mancozeb @ 2g/lit
Including • Resistant varieties
Antibiotics: • Lerma Rojo, Safed Lerma,
• Sonalika and Chotil
 Genetic Resistance to stem rust of wheat

• The most successful of these was Sr31, a gene that occurs

on a segment of a chromosome from rye that was
transferred into wheat by a complicated process of
interspecific hybridization.
• Wheat with Sr31 quickly became popular worldwide,
because, in addition to Sr31, the rye chromosome segment
also carried genes for increased grain yield as well as
additional genes for resistance to other rust diseases.
• The effectiveness of Sr31 was so great that wheat stem
rust declined to almost insignificant levels nearly
everywhere in the world by the mid-1990s.
• Recently, the resistance of Sr31 was finally overcome.
• A new race of the wheat stem rust fungus highly
virulent to wheat varieties with Sr31 was found in
Uganda in 1999.
 YELLOW RUST
YELLOW RUST/ STRIPE RUST OF
/ STRIPE WHEAT
RUST OF WHEAT

appearance of yellow streaks (pre-pustules), followed by small,

bright yellow, elongated uredial pustules arranged in
conspicuous rows on the leaves, leaf sheaths, glumes and
awns
Mature pustules will break open and release yellow-orange
masses of urediniospores.
The characteristic symptom is of parallel rows of yellowish
orange coloured pustules on the leaves of adult plants.
• Seed treatment reduces disease severity. Sowing seeds should
be done after treating the seeds with bio-agent Trichoderma
viride @ 4.0 g/kg seeds plus tebuconazole 2 DS (Raxil) @ 0.1
g/kg of seeds
• Spray a recommended and cost-effective fungicide.
• Application of fungicide solution of propiconazole 25 EC
(Tilt), tebuconazole 250 EC (folicur) or triadimefon 25 WP
(Bayleton) is recommended to control the spread of yellow
rust.
 BROWN RUST / LEAF
RUST OF WHEAT

• It is most important
• where dews are frequent
during the flowering
stages and temperatures
are mild, 15-25 C.
• Symptoms
•Pustules of leaf rust, found
predominantly on the leaf blade and
sheath, are small, up to 1/16 inch long,
round to oval fruiting bodies (uredinia)
of the rust fungus
LOOSE SMUT OF WHEAT
• The spores of each spikelet are covered by
a thin greyish or silvery membrane.
• By the time the ear emerges from the boot
leaf the membrane ruptures to expose the
black powdery mass of spores.
• The ear is generally completely destroyed
except the awns and the rachis.
❖The wheat grains are at first soaked in water kept within a range
of temperature between 26°C-30°C. They are allowed to remain
there for about 4-5 hours. In the softened grains the dormant
mycelium becomes active.
❖The temperature of water is then raised and kept constant at 54°C
for about 10 minutes. At this temperature the activated mycelium
is killed. This method requires strict care and supervision. The
temperature should be carefully controlled as the embryo in wheat
grain will be killed at 56°C
 Sun Heating:
❖This method is in vogue in the Punjab and U.P. Here the sun in the
months of May and June is very hot. The atmospheric temperature is very
high.
❖The suspected grains are soaked in water in flat, shallow bottomed basins
with water level about two inches above the level of grain.
❖The basins are placed in the direct rays of the summer sun for about 4 to 6
hours, say from 8 a.m. to 12 noon. During this period the dormant fungus
mycelium becomes active. The water is then drained off.
❖The softened grains are spread in thin layers on the brick floor in the
midday sun to dry.
❖In the cooler regions the use of galvanised iron sheet to spread and dry the
grain in the sun has been recommended.