Effect of essential oils, medicinal plants, bio agents and chemicals on sheath rot incidence and yield of rice

Abstract

Sheath rot of rice caused by Sarocladium oryzae is an important disease of rice causing heavy yield losses in all cultivated areas of Agro-Climatic conditions of Bihar. The present investigation was carried out in Kharif 2022 at rice field of RPCAU, Pusa Farm to evaluate the efficacy of some untraditional management practices (essential oils, medicinal plants, bio agents) along with traditional methods (chemical) for management of sheath rot disease of rice. The two best management practices were selected after one year of laboratory test during 2021 viz. White Tea oil @ 0.05%, Lemongrass oil @ 0.05%, Calotropis @ 15%, Datura @ 15%, Trichoderma asperellum @ 0.4%, Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 1%, Difenconazole 25% EC @ 0.05% and Thifluzamide 24% SC @ 0.8%. The minimum disease incidence of 33.9%, 42.4% disease decrease over control and maximum yield of 3610.00 kg/ha was found in the treatment sprayed twice with Difenconazole 25% EC @ 0.05%, which was followed by treatment Thifluzamide 24%SC where disease incidence was 38.6% with 3300.00 kg/ha yield and treatment Pseudomonas fluorescens @ 1%, with disease incidence of 39.1% and yield 3001.00 kg/ha. All the other treatments performed good result in comparison with plot without treatment.