Epidemiology and Management of Foot Rot in Basmati Rice

Foot rot disease of Basmati rice is known for causing huge economic losses in all the basmati producing areas every year. The present study was carried out at Regional Research Station, Gurdaspur during kharif 2012–13 and 2013–14 to investigate the role of growing environment on disease development, extent of loss caused by the disease and effective management of the disease. Data analysis revealed that early transplanting of basmati rice (10th June) resulted in maximum disease incidence (24.2%) while, the lowest disease (3.6%) was recorded under late transplanting (10thJuly). The higher air temperature associated with early planting contributed significantly in symptom development. The correlation coefficient between foot rot incidence and maximum air temperature was found to be significantly positive (0.85; p<0.01). The soil temperature also showed highly positive correlation at 5 cm (0.62) and 20 cm (0.60) depth. The rainfall during transplanting to tillering was negatively associated (−0.71; p<0.05) with bakane development and thus causing in high infection during early transplanting. Similarly, age of nursery also expressed significant effect on disease incidence and highest disease (19.7%) was registered while seedlings of 50 daysage were used for transplanting. The yield loss varied from 3.8 to 47.2per cent depending on the infection level. The set of experiment with different control methods as treatments showed that seed treatment with Bavistin 50 WP @ 0.2% + seedling dip treatment in Bavistin 50 WP @ 0.2% + uprooting the infected seedlings in the nursery was most effective and can control the disease (92.2%) in the field. Thus, foot rot disease of basmati rice can be controlled by altering growing environment accordingly and through management manipulation and judicious use of chemical control.