Present Scenario of Stem Rot of Rice (Sclerotium oryzae)

The stem rot disease was found well distributed at various localities of Imphal East, Imphal West, Bishnupur and Thoubal districts of Manipur. It was observed that disease intensity of the isolate 1 was found maximum in Thoubal district (55.1%) followed by Bishnupur (52.4%) district and Imphal West (27.1%) district, respectively. The minimum intensity of disease was recorded in Imphal East district (25.6%) while for isolate 2 the disease intensity was maximum (50.1%) in Imphal West, followed by Imphal East (47.9%) and Thoubal district (31%).The minimum intensity was recorded in Bishnupur district (28.2%). Among the four biocontrol agents evaluated on the growth and sclerotia production of the fungal isolates of Sclerotium oryzae, Trichoderma harzianum and Trichoderma hamatum showed the maximum antagonistic property. However, Trichoderma viride showed the least, Penicillium citrinum could not inhibit the growth of the isolates but form an inhibition zone with 5mm and 1cm in Isolate 1 and Isolate 2.