More farmers in Punjab and Haryana are reporting the incidence of a disease that causes dwarfing in rice.
It was observed that the condition is more visible in transplanted fields than in directly seeded farms. The incidence also appears to be higher in non-basmati than in basmati paddy fields.
Scientists from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute visited farmers’ fields in Punjab and Haryana to study the severity of the yet-unknown disease and are studying the cause of the problem.
Read the story @The Indian Express
More on preventing the spread of pests and diseases in rice:
The role of CGIAR Germplasm Health Units in averting endemic crop diseases: the example of rice blast in Bangladesh
Germplasm Health Units (GHUs) are institutional phytosanitary units of the CGIAR designed to facilitate bioresource transfer for their breeding programs and their genebanks. One CGIAR’s unknown success stories is the contribution of GHUs to reducing the risk of transboundary spread of pests and diseases and the transfer delays that could have impaired time-sensitive progress in plant breeding.
Sustainable management of transboundary pests requires holistic and inclusive solutions
Effective plant health management requires holistic approaches that focus on preventing entry, establishment, and spread of invasive pests and pathogens, to the extent possible, and mitigation of the impacts of the outbreaks through eco-friendly, socially inclusive, and sustainable management approaches. The reactive approach, followed in general by most institutions and countries, focusing on containment and management actions (in most cases using pesticides) after the occurrence of an outbreak, might have paid off in the short- and medium-term, but cannot be sustainable.
The line of defense against the transboundary spread of pests and disease
Transboundary pest or disease can often have significant negative impacts on food security and nutrition in developing countries, according to the FAO. Its economic impact (estimated at about USD 540 billion) comes from yield losses or reduced efficiency of agricultural production that could be particularly severe if the local economy is heavily dependent on one or a few vulnerable crop or livestock.
