Anisul Islam Noor :
With harvesting time coming close, the farmers were baffled detecting various diseases identified as ‘neck blast’ and ‘false smut’ in Aman paddy all over the country.
The reasons of diseases are foggy weather and excessive humidity in the air, experts said. The farmers have now been worried about the expected target if the plants are seriously damaged by the diseases.
The Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) officials said the BRRI dhan-34 is attacked with neck blast while BRRI dhan-49 becomes infected with false smut.
The Head of BRRI Plant Pathology Division, Dr Md Abdul Latif, about the remedy of the diseases, informed that in neck blast infected rice field, it is necessary to hold water.
In the rice fields where there is a risk to be infected with this disease, it is necessary to apply fungicide of Trycyclazole group. As for example, Trooper, Zeal with the dose of 54 grams per 33.33 decimal areas or a mixed fungicide Nativo should be applied with the dose of 34 grams per 33.33 decimal areas.
For the false smut disease fungicide, Propiconazole group of medicine such as tilt should be applied at the rate of 132 grams per 33.33 decimal areas. All the fungicides should be applied in the afternoon with two times interval in a week.
While talking about it, Dr Latif said neck blast is a fungal disease.
When rice plants are Infected with this disease, its neck root or branches break down and the grain becomes sterile. The disease spreads easily in cold night and hot day, especially when foggy weather prevails in the morning.
False smut is also a fungal disease. It spreads at the time of the maturity of the crop. The fungus affects the maturecd rice grain and create ball type symptom. The inside parts of the ball are yellow and orange colours and the outer side is green that ultimately turned black.
