Effect of different dates of sowing on the occurrence and severity of sheath rot disease in rice

Abstract

Avoidance or escape is one of the safest principles of plant disease management. Field experiment was conducted to find out the best sowing time to avoid sheath rot disease, one of the emerging diseases of rice crop. Rice variety MTU 1001 was sown three times during kharif season at 15 days interval as early, mid and late sown crop. It was found that the disease appeared late in early sown crop and consequently the disease severity in terms of Percent Disease Index (PDI) was also lowest (36.4 %) as compared to mid and late sown crops recording 41.95 % and 47.22 % PDI respectively. So, early sowing i.e. sowing within the last week of June is found to be the best sowing time to escape sheath rot disease. This will render less damage to the crop ultimately increasing the yield level of the crop.