Agriculture & Food, Volume 2, 2014

Abstract: Screen house experiment to compare the virulence of blast inoculum collected at various locations in Nigeria and its effects on some rice cultivars were determined at Badeggi Central Nigeria. The blast inoculum was collected from some locations in North West, North East. North Central, South East and South West of Nigeria. The experiment was laid out in a factorial design fitted into a split plot. There were 60 treatment combinations. The rice cultivars serve as the main plot while the inoculum serves as the subplot. The experiment was replicated three times. Inoculation was done at two weeks after sowing with a control plot that was not inoculated. Leaf, neck and panicle blast were scored on all the buckets. Also grain weight at harvest was scored. Result indicated that blast pathogen from South west was most virulent. Blast pathogen from South East was the second most virulent on all the varieties of rice tested. Blast pathogens from North East and North Central were almost the same in terms of pathogenicity on all the varieties of rice tested. Blast pathogen from North West was the least virulent on all the varieties of rice tested. There was a progressive increase in pathogenicity from the day of inoculation to 4 weeks after inoculation across all the treatments. The result showed that the local varieties used in the trial holds promise for blast control and for breeding for blast resistant varieties.