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IMAGE: Spraying rice flowers with a non-pathogenic fusaria produces seeds carrying the non-pathogenic fusaria and controls seedborne bakanae disease.. disease view more
Credit: Tsutomu Arie, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
Researchers have developed a new technique to protect rice seeds against fungal infections that can ruin up to half of all rice crops in the world. The biocontrol method, which involves inoculation of flowers with a different fungus that doesn t cause disease and using seeds harvested from the flower to grow crops, is even better at protecting rice plants from diseases than existing fungicide approaches, and could also be used against similar pathogens that affect other staple crops.