Experts suggest tips to manage paddy disease appearing in Punjab

AHMEDABAD: The appearance of sheath blight and foot rot on paddy crop have been noticed by Punjab Agriculture University experts from the department of plant pathology.

According to Dr. T.S. Thind, head of the department, the sheath blight can be recognized from the light green to straw coloured lesions with purple margins on the lower part of the leaf sheath near the water level. "When weather condition are favourable for the disease, it can spread to upper leaves and inflorescence thus affecting yield,"he said adding that the disease has been noticed in villages in the district of Ropar (village Sandhuan, Morinda, Chupki, Taprian, Rampur) and Patiala (village Mardan Heri) with an incidence varying from traces to 20%.

The intermittent rains provides conditions favourable for disease development. Giving tips, Dr. Thind said that to check the further spread, farmers should spray the crop with Tilt (25 EC) or Monceron at 200 ml in 200 litre of water per acre. He advised the farmers to clean the bunds of rice fields as the pathogen (Rhizoctonia solani) can survive on grassy weeds.

Foot rot has also been noticed on Pusa-1121 variety of Basmati rice. The disease can be identified by elongation of affected plants which ultimately dry up in the field. In some of the isolated fields, the incidence of the disease has touched 40%, said Dr. Thind and advised farmers to rogue out the affected plants and destroy them. As the disease is mainly seed-borne, the farmers should produce disease free seed. Dr. Thind suggested to give a spray of Tilt (25 EC) at boot stage of the crop to produce healthy seed for the next year crop.