Factors Affecting Unusually Severe Outbreak of Rice Blast in Gyeongnam Province in 1993

1993년 경상남도지역의 벼도열병 다발생과 그 원인

Unusually severe rice blast epidemic sweeped over the rice growing area in Gyeongnam Province and elsewhere in 1993. Leaf blast infection was reached to 33,133 ha, which is about 24.5% of total paddy area and neck blast infection was apparent throughout 4,421 ha. Major factors affecting such an unusual epidemic appeared to be as follow: Firstly, low temperature, frequent rainfall and coincidentally insufficient duration of sunshine through July and August; Secondly, most cultivars possessing low levels of field resistance were cultivated in wide areas: Thirdly, blast fungus population was enough for successive infection under optimum weather condition and most races distributed in field were able to infect most cultivars.