Pests and diseases
Main article: List of rice diseases
Rice pests are any organisms or microbes with the potential to reduce the yield or value of the rice crop (or of rice seeds).[53] (Jahn et al. 2007) Rice pests include weeds, pathogens, insects, rodents, and birds. A variety of factors can contribute to pest outbreaks, including the overuse of pesticides and high rates of nitrogen fertilizer application.[54] Weather conditions also contribute to pest outbreaks. For example, rice gall midge and army worm outbreaks tend to follow periods of high rainfall early in the wet season, while thrips outbreaks are associated with drought.[55]Crop protection scientists are trying to develop rice pest management techniques which are sustainable. In other words, to manage crop pests in such a manner that future crop production is not threatened.[56] At present, rice pest management includes cultural techniques, pest-resistant rice varieties, and pesticides (which include insecticide). Increasingly, there is evidence that farmers' pesticide applications are often unnecessary, and even facilitate pest outbreaks.[57][58][59][60][61][62] By reducing the populations of natural enemies of rice pests,[63] misuse of insecticides can actually lead to pest outbreaks (Cohen et al. 1994). Botanicals, so-called "natural pesticides", are used by some farmers in an attempt to control rice pests. Botanicals include extracts of leaves, or a mulch of the leaves themselves. Some upland rice farmers in Cambodia spread chopped leaves of the bitter bush (Chromolaena odorata) over the surface of fields after planting. This practice probably helps the soil retain moisture and thereby facilitates seed germination. Farmers also claim the leaves are a natural fertilizer and helps suppress weed and insect infestations.[64]
Among rice cultivars there are differences in the responses to, and recovery from, pest damage.[65] Therefore, particular cultivars are recommended for areas prone to certain pest problems. The genetically based ability of a rice variety to withstand pest attacks is called resistance.[66] Three main types of plant resistance to pests are recognized as nonpreference, antibiosis, and tolerance.[67] Nonpreference (or antixenosis) describes host plants which insects prefer to avoid; antibiosis is where insect survival is reduced after the ingestion of host tissue; and tolerance is the capacity of a plant to produce high yield or retain high quality despite insect infestation.[68] Over time, the use of pest resistant rice varieties selects for pests that are able to overcome these mechanisms of resistance. When a rice variety is no longer able to resist pest infestations, resistance is said to have broken down. Rice varieties that can be widely grown for many years in the presence of pests, and retain their ability to withstand the pests are said to have durable resistance. Mutants of popular rice varieties are regularly screened by plant breeders to discover new sources of durable resistance.[69]
Major rice pests include the brown planthopper,[70] the rice gall midge,[71] the rice bug,[72] the rice leafroller,[73] rice weevils,[74] stemborer,[75] panicle rice mite, rats,[76] and the weed Echinochloa crusgali.[77]
Major rice diseases include Rice ragged stunt, Sheath Blight and tungro.[78] Rice blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe grisea, is the most significant disease affecting rice cultivation. There is also an ascomycete fungus, Cochliobolus miyabeanus, that causes brown spot disease in rice.[79][80]
No comments:
Post a Comment