Prevent rice blast outbreaks

(Baonghean) - Currently, rice blast disease has appeared on spring rice fields in Tan Ky, Nghi Loc, Hung Nguyen... causing damage. The area severely affected by rice blast disease is up to 500 hectares, requiring more urgent disease prevention and control work.

Widespread appearance

Up to now, the spring rice crop in Nghia Hanh commune, Tan Ky district has been infected with rice blast disease, especially 150 hectares are heavily infected with a very high rate. Immediately after detecting the disease, the locality and the Plant Protection Station of Tan Ky district directly inspected the fields, and at the same time directed farmers to focus on spraying special pesticides to prevent rice blast disease on rice leaves. Mr. Cao Duc Trung in hamlet 7, Nghia Hanh commune, Tan Ky district said: This spring crop, his family has planted 1 hectare but up to this point, rice blast disease on the leaves has been damaged. His family has reported to the superiors and has been instructed to spray pesticides twice, thanks to which the disease has been reduced significantly.

Farmers in Hung Tan commune, Hung Nguyen district take care of rice and spray pesticides to prevent rice blast disease.

In Tan Ky district, the whole district has 220 hectares of rice damaged by blast disease, the common rate is from 5 - 8%, in some places up to 12 - 15%, mainly concentrated in Nghia Hanh, Tan An and Dong Van communes. Mr. Nguyen Van Trinh - Head of Tan Ky District Plant Protection Station added: "We recommend that farmers do not apply nitrogen fertilizer to rice areas damaged by blast disease. Currently, we have assigned staff of the station to stay close to the fields to promptly guide farmers on how to handle pests and diseases, and coordinate with localities to synchronously deploy solutions to prevent blast disease. Currently, Tan Ky has sprayed chemicals to prevent blast disease on 115 hectares."

Symptoms of blast disease on rice leaves

This spring crop, Nghi Loc has planted over 7,300 hectares of rice despite the hardships of cold and drought. Currently, spring rice is in the tillering and panicle-forming stages. The weather is foggy, drizzly, and humid, creating favorable conditions for pests and diseases, especially blast disease on leaves. According to the report of Nghi Loc District Plant Protection Station, blast disease has occurred and damaged varieties such as Xi23, Xi30, sticky rice..., with an average rate of 5% - 10%, and in some places 40 - 50%. In particular, local fires have occurred in some areas in Nghi Thach and Nghi Phong communes. The total area infected with blast disease in the district is nearly 20 hectares.

Nghi Thach commune is one of the localities with a high area and rate of rice infected with disease, and rice blast disease outbreaks appear at a high density. Since mid-March, many households here have sprayed pesticides. Thanks to that, up to now, the rice areas that were sprayed to prevent rice blast disease have basically turned green again. Mr. Dang Manh Hung - Hamlet 5, Nghi Thach commune, Nghi Loc said: "This spring, my family planted 5 sao. Of which, 1 sao was severely infected with rice blast disease, the rest were only mildly infected. Thanks to proactive early spraying, the infected area has decreased so far."

Propaganda for effective prevention

Ms. Dang Thi Hai - Head of Nghi Loc District Plant Protection Station said: "We recommend that people, for rice fields that have been infected with disease, direct the use of specific drugs such as BEBM 75WP, Filia 525EC, Bump 60WP... to spray thoroughly. For fields with severe disease, spray twice, the second time 5-7 days after the first time. Before spraying, remove severely diseased leaves, destroy them and then spray. Absolutely do not apply nitrogen fertilizer when the rice is infected.

In particular, in cloudy, drizzly weather, farmers are instructed to spray to prevent rice blast disease on all spring rice fields. After spraying, the rice fields that have recovered from the disease, proceed to spray growth stimulants to help the rice develop.

To completely control the rice blast disease, Nghi Loc District People's Committee directed localities to propagate to farmers to organize spraying on infected areas. To facilitate people in the prevention work, the District Plant Protection Station has provided enough quality drugs and coordinated with communes to move drugs to the grassroots to serve people in spraying. Assigning staff to the locality to regularly monitor, grasp the situation of emerging pests and diseases, instruct and advise people to proactively check and spray according to the correct technical process, effectively, avoid waste and avoid spreading widely.

Currently, districts such as Dien Chau, Hung Nguyen, Do Luong, Tan Ky are all taking action to fight the rice blast disease. In particular, in Hung Nguyen, the infected area is 70 hectares. The Plant Protection Station is directly going to the fields to inspect and coordinate with farmers in prevention work.

Phuong Thao - Hong Vinh