Monitoring fungi on rice seed of several italian varieties

Abstract

Many fungi can be present on rice seed and some can cause problems both to plant growth and to production quality. A survey was conducted in Italy to list the fungi present on seed with and without hulls. The fungi greatly differ in distribution among varieties and in abundance on seeds. Some of them seem to be linked to the spot on white rice and could be the cause of quality decreasing in Italy. A total of 51 italian rice varieties were investigated. The number of observed fungus taxa was 62 and 51 for paddy and husked rice seed, respectively