In vitro and in vivo Evaluation of Fungicides against False Smut Disease of Rice in Hilly Zone of Karnataka, India

The efficacy of six different systemic fungicides and two combi-products were evaluated for inhibition of growth of pathogen at three different concentrations. Among systemic and combi-products fungicides were evaluated, the cent per cent inhibition was observed in Propiconazole 25 % EC, Tebuconazole 250 EC, Azoxystrobin 18.2 % + Difenconazole 11.4 % SC and Tebuconazole 50 % + Trifloxystrobin 25 % WG at all the concentrations. Azoxystrobin 25 % SC resulted in 82.49, 100 and 100 per cent inhibition whereas difenconazole 25 EC recorded 75.08, 80.58, and 100 per cent inhibition of mycelia growth at 100, 200 and 500 ppm concentrations respectively. A field experiment was conducted at AHRS, Ponnampet during Kharif 2017 to find out the effective fungicide for the management of false smut of rice. It was inferred that the treatment with the fungicide Tebuconazole 50 % + Trifloxystrobin 25 % WP gave the lowest false smut disease severity of 2.80 per cent, which was followed by the Azoxystrobin 18.2 % + Difenconozole 11.4 % SC with 6.17 per cent, Propiconazole 25% EC with 10.50 per cent and Azoxystrobin 25 % SC with 15.87 per cent. On comparison with the grain yield obtained from each plot it was found that the treatment with Tebuconazole 50 % + Trifloxystrobin 25 % WP gave the highest grain yield of 55.42 q/ha which was followed by the Azoxystrobin 18.2 % + Difenconozole 11.4 % SC(53.72 q/ha), Propiconazole 25% EC(49.47 q/ha) and Azoxystrobin 25 % SC (48.36q/ha) as against grain yield of 38.68 q/ha in untreated control.