Rice Blast Disease

Blast continues to be the most destructive fungal disease of rice, despite decades of research devoted to its control. This book has been developed from a conference held in Madison, Wisconsin, in August 1993, and presents a comprehensive review of the current status of our knowledge of the disease and its management. The main focus is an examination of approaches to manage the disease by integrating basic knowledge about the disease with developments in rice technology, biological control, breeding for disease resistance, and indigenous agricultural knowledge. With recent progress in rice and fungal transformation and in the mapping and cloning of rice genes, the potential contribution of biotechnology is also assessed. The book consists of 33 chapters, divided into five main parts, covering: pathogen biology, host plant resistance, pathogen population dynamics and utilization of host plant resistance, epidemiology, loss assessment and management, and farmers’ perspectives. It represents the standard work on its subject and will be indispensable for plant pathologists as well as agronomists and plant breeders concerned with rice production.