There is suf?cient need to document all the available data on biological control of rice diseases in a small volume. Part of this need rests on the global importance of rice to human life. In the ?rst chapter, I have tried to show that rice is indeed life for most people in Asia and shortages in production and availability can lead to a food crisis. While rice is cultivated in most continents, biological disease management attains special relevance to rice farmers of Africa, Asia, and also perhaps, Latin America. These farmers are resource-poor and might not be able to afford the cost of expensive chemical treatments to control devastating rice pathogens such as Magnaporthe oryzae (blast), Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (bacterial leaf blight), Rhizoctonia solani (sheath blight) and the virus, rice tungro disease. In an earlier volume that I developed under the title, Biological Control of Crop Diseases (Dekker/CRC Publishers, 2002), I included transgenic crops generated for the management of plant pathogens as biological control under the umbrella of a broad de?nition. Dr Jim Cook who wrote the Foreword for the volume lauded the inclusion of transgenic crops and induced systemic resistance (ISR) as a positive trend toward acceptance of host plant resistance as part of biocontrol. I continue to subscribe to this view.

Virus and MLO diseases; Bacterial diseases; Fungus diseases - foliage diseases; Fungus diseases - diseases of stem, leaf sheath and root; Fungus diseases - seedling diseases; Fungus diseases - diseases of grain and inflorescence; Diseases caused by nematodes; Physiological diseases.

Rice is a major staple food and a source of nutrition for over 3.5 billion people worldwide. It is, however, susceptible to a number of bacterial diseases that decrease its yield and quality. This book covers the bacterial diseases of rice and their management, focusing on sustainable management methods that involve biological control, conventional breeding, and molecular methods. It covers the biology of rice bacterial blight pathogens, virulence determinants, and host defense factors of bacterial blight pathogen-rice interactions. Different resistance rice cultivars, their resistance loci, and quantitative trait loci mapping in the important rice cultivars are also discussed. The book presents biological studies of the major rice bacterial diseases (rice bacterial brown stripe disease, bacterial leaf streak disease, rice bacterial panicle blight disease, rice bacterial foot rot, sheath brown rot disease) and presents comparative analyses of conventional breeding, and molecular management approaches, along with examples.

This book focuses on recent advances in genetic resources, host - pathogen interactions, assay methods, mechanisms of pathogenesis, and disease resistance. Environmentally benign crop protection methods for major rice diseases such as rice blast, sheath blight, bacterial blight, and newly emerged rice diseases such as false smut and bacterial panicle blight disease are included. The content also contains recent rice breeding methods for higher yield and improved disease resistance, rice processing, delicious rice recipes, and food safety. The book includes a comprehensive understanding of Bacillus thuringiensis toxin and its application for crop protection. Holistically, the book demonstrates successful applications of genomics, physiology, chemistry, genetics, pathology, soil science, and food technology to sustainably protect rice crops for global food safety.

At a time when Africa's food security stands threatened, Realizing Africa's Rice Promise provides a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art research and recommendations for dealing with future challenges. With contributions from the key scientists working on rice in Africa, this volume addresses policy, genetic diversity and improvement, sustainable productivity enhancement, innovations and value chains. The book is useful for researchers, policy makers, agricultural ministries, donors, regional and sub-regional organizations, non-governmental development organizations and universities.

Rice is a widely consumed crop around the world that has tremendous importance and is cultivated almost everywhere except Antarctica. However, various biotic and abiotic stresses have a negative effect on rice cultivation, seriously reducing its yield. This volume examines the bacterial and fungal pathogens that cause rice diseases and explores how to manage these diseases. It covers the economic and environmental impact of rice fungal diseases on global food security and proceeds to delve into diagnostic methods for rice fungal pathogen detection and discusses current strategic and applied biotechnological methods for the effective management of rice fungal diseases.