PAU warns farmers against attack of foot rot disease in basmati rice

Ludhiana, July 31, 2019: The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) has warned the farmers across Punjab against the attack of foot rot disease in basmati rice.

According to Dr Narinder Singh, Head, Department of Plant Pathology foot rot is an important disease of basmati rice. This disease is both seed and soil borne. The infected seedlings turn pale yellow and become elongated. Later on these seedlings start drying from bottom and then usually die.

Further briefing, Dr Narinder Singh said the symptoms also appear after transplanting in the field and the infected plants become taller than the normal plants and are killed after few days, he added. Adventitious roots also appear on the lower nodes. Pinkish growth of the fungus appears on the lower sheaths, he said.

Adding, Dr Singh said the crop remains free from this disease if farmers have followed the seed and root dip treatment of nursery seedlings of basmati rice as per PAU recommendations. Attack of this disease has been seen in the fields of the farmers, who transplant basmati early and have not done seed and seedling root dip treatment, he said. If this disease is not controlled, it will reduce the yield to a great extent, he cautioned. There is no treatment after the disease has appeared in the field, he told.

He stressed on using nitrogen fertilizer judiciously. He also cautioned that some of the farmers spray or broadcast Bavistin fungicide in fields by mixing in the sand for the control of this disease. There is no such recommendation by PAU, he informed. When the diseased plants are noticed, they should be roughed out from the field and farmers should produce their own disease free seed from the healthy crop, he advised.