REVIEW ON BANDED LEAF AND SHEATH BLIGHT OF RICE CAUSED BY Rhizoctonia solani KÜHN

INTRODUCTION Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a graminaceous crop. It is one of the important staple foods for Asian countries. Sheath blight disease is an important fungal disease of rice. Currently, this disease is distributed in almost all the rice growing states. The disease is alarming due to its intensive cultivation of modern high yielding varieties with high doses of nitrogenous fertilizers. Crop with a high plant density and close canopy associated favors disease build up from panicle initiation onwards. Poor weed management practices and increase in frequency of irrigation have aggravated, incidence of the disease due to modified micro climatic conditions. The disease was first recorded from Japan (Miyake, 1910). In India, the disease was first reported from Gurudaspur, Punjab (Paracer and Chahal, 1963) and later it was reported from Uttar Pradesh (Kohli, 1966). The management of this disease is possible only after the detailed study of different aspect of this disease and the pathogen. Management of the disease below its economic threshold is important for increasing the production, productivity and quality of the produce. Recognizing the importance of the problem, need for the effective and socio economically feasible management of the pathogen, the present review presented by keeping the above stated factors of the disease into consideration.