Bioefficacy of Strobilurin Based Fungicides against Rice Sheath Blight Disease

As the usage of fungicides catapulted with the onward march of the dial hour, fungicidal resistance by the pathogens emerged as a new constraint. This amalgamated with the growing demand by the farmers for crop protection agents with low use rates, a benign environmental profile and a low toxicity to human and wild life, further gave an impetus to the search of new molecule of fungicides with novel modes of action. Sheath blight of rice caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kuhn is one of the devastating diseases in eastern part of India. Various attempts were taken to develop sheath blight resistant variety but till date no such varieties were released. Various cultural practices combined with use of fungicides are the most common option of managing the disease. Repeated use of same fungicides in the same field sometimes become less or not effective, may be due to development of resistance recombinant of R. solani. Several experiment proved strobilurin based molecules like azoxystrobin, trifloxystrobin, metominostrobin manage the disease effectively and eco-friendly way than other commercially available fungicides.