Scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have invented a new tool to track and stop bacterial blight outbreaks in rice field.
The multi-national rice research organisation in a web positing has termed the tool a revolutionary one, which can identify the deadly bacterial diseases in a faster way and more accurately, reports BSS.
According to IRRI, bacterial blight of rice is one of the most economically devastating diseases of the crop. It can damage as much as 60 to 70 per cent yield of rice and can even result in crop failure, especially when the disease strikes at the seedling stage.
There are chemicals developed to control this disease, but none of them are completely effective at eliminating outbreak.
The new tool called PathoTracer, however, can identify the exact strain of the bacterium that causes bacterial blight present in a field in a matter of days instead of several months of laboratory work.
"It is like a paternity test that uses DNA profiling," said Ricardo Oliva, a plant pathologist at IRRI.
For more than four years, Dr Oliva and his team worked on working out the genetic code of the pathogen that causes bacterial blight, to develop the tool.
He said it will not only tell the farmers that they have bacterial blight in their plants, but will also tell them the particular strain of the pathogen so that they can recommend varieties resistant to it.
Headquartered in Manila, IRRI piloted the new tool in Mindanao in the southern part of the Philippines in April 2017 and eventually tested in other Asian countries to roll it out by the first half of this year.
"When it becomes available, the expected potential impact of the PathoTracer on a devastating disease that affects rice fields worldwide would be huge," the IRRI said.