Brown SpotHelminthosporiosis or brown spot disease of rice, caused by Cochliobolus miyabeanus (Ito and Kuribayashi) Drechsler (anamorph Bipolaris oryzae [Breda de Haan] Shoemaker), is one of the most important diseases of aromatic rices. The disease appears as small oval or circular, dark brownspots on leaves and glumes (Figure 1C). The spots are relatively evenly distributed on the leaf surface. This disease is primarily seedborne, however, secondary spread is rapid under favorable conditions. This disease is aggrevated by poor fertility conditions like low nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (Chakrabarti, 1992). Due to lodging problem in tall aromatic rice varieties, low dosage of nitrogen is applied. This results in high incidence of brown spot. Although proper application of nitrogen,particularly in slow release form, suppresses disease development, it may not be practical due to lodging problem. The disease can be managed by seed treatment followed by foliar spray of fungicides like mancozeb, carboxin, bitertanol, etc. (Table 1). Seed treatment or spraying of ferricchloride, nickel nitrate, sodium molybdate, sodium selenite and thioglycolic acid provide appreciableprotection against the disease (Sinha and Hait, 1982). Application of Silicon also reduces disease intensity (Datnoff et al., 1989). Biocontrol agents like Bacillus subtilis, applied thorough seed, soil or foliar spray have been found to be effective (Nanda and Gangopadhyay, 1983). A number of aromatic rice land races/germplasms have been identified as resistant under natural condition (U. S. Singh, R. K. Singh and G. S. Khush, personal observation). However, among aromatic rice varietiesonly Pusa Basmati-1 is reported to be resistant (Table 2).
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