Sustainable strategy for managing blast and sheath blight in flood prone rice

Contingency measures were adopted based on the real time weather pattern of the growing season in the village Sirsuwada of Kotturmandal in Srikakulam district under rain fed farming system of paddy. Field study was conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Amadalavalasa as biotic stress management at farmers’ fields during the two khari fseasons 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 in rice ecosystem in reducing the blast and sheath blight incidences by economizing the cost of plant protection chemicals, adopting prophylactic measures in the North Coastal Zone of Andhra Pradesh. The experiment carried out using different management practices as T1, seed treatment with carbendazim @ 2g/kg seed and as need based chemical spray using fungicides like tricyclazole @0.6g/l and hexaconazole @2ml/l and T2, was farmer’s practice as fungicidal sprays after the occurrence of disease irrationally without proper prophylactic management practices. The results revealed that prophylactic measures were effective and were superior over the farmers’ practice in reducing the incidence of blast and sheath blight in paddy with high B:C ratio of 2.07 and 1.93 along with increased net return of Rs.41600/- and Rs.34312/-, respectively.