Managing blast and udbatta diseases in rice by seed treatment

Rice grown under irrigation of Cauvery river channels are facing early and drastic infections of blast disease while, udbatta, an endemic disease of the area has taken upper hand and become severe in the area. Seed treatment with fungicide manages the pathogen borne in the seed and soil, also protecting the crop upto 25–30 days. The method of seed treatment also plays a role in eradicating the seated infection propagules in the seeds. (Treating of sprouted seeds with carbendazim at 4g/kg of seeds exhibited least per cent of blast (14.4) and udbatta (15.5)disease severity during summer and Kharif, 2012 respectively). Whereas, dry seed treatment was next effective when combination of carbendazim 25 + mancozeb 50WS at 4g/kg seed treatment was used with 16.6 and 13.3, 17.7 and 15.5 per cent for Summer and Kharif, 2012 respectively. Both the chemicals were superior in treatment for sprouted seeds for efficiently managing both the diseases for two seasons when used as seed treatment.