Highlights: Madagascar: vascular bacteriosis, a contagious disease on rice, worries researchers. Saturday January 20, researchers from the National Center for Applied Research in Rural Development (Fofifa) and the IRD presented their work on this disease. Yield losses on infected plots can be up to 70%: a real threat to the agricultural economy and the country's food security. The pathology was identified for the first time on the island in 2019, a few months later in Tanzania and has even conquered other islands such as Nosy Be.

Vascular bacteriosis of rice is galloping almost silently in Madagascar. Saturday January 20, researchers from the National Center for Applied Research in Rural Development (Fofifa) and the IRD presented…

Madagascar: vascular bacteriosis, a contagious disease on rice, worries researchers

Vascular bacteriosis of rice is galloping almost silently in Madagascar.

Saturday January 20, researchers from the National Center for Applied Research in Rural Development (Fofifa) and the IRD presented their work on this disease which attacks Malagasy rice fields and which has spread throughout the territory.

A worrying fact for this essential commodity for the Malagasy people.

The pathology was identified for the first time on the island in 2019, a few months later in Tanzania and has even conquered other islands such as Nosy Be.

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Poster distributed to farmers across the country to raise awareness about the epidemic affecting rice crops and help them have the right reflexes, in Antananarivo, Saturday January 20, 2024. © Sarah Tétaud / RFI

By: RFI Follow

With our correspondent in Antananarivo,

Sarah Tétaud

“

See the yellow part on the leaves?
These are really symptoms of the disease

,” says Harinjaka Raveloson, showing burns, wilting and necrosis, some of the stigmata left on the leaves of rice ears affected by vascular bacteriosis.

“

We are worried

because of the introduction of this new disease and its speed of dispersion, almost everywhere in Madagascar

,” continues the researcher at Fofifa in Antsirabe in phytopathology, i.e. the study of plant diseases

.
Our priority is to have discussions with rice farmers to find out where the areas are affected by this disease.
And at the same time, we give instructions that if there are disease attacks on the plots, we should not use seeds from that plot.

The reason for this advice comes from the first results obtained after the study of the contaminated strains, explains Mathilde Hutin, researcher at the IRD: “

One of our first hypotheses is that in Madagascar, the transmission could have been made by the seeds.
So, the idea of all our experiments now is to know to what extent all the known or not yet demonstrated means of transmission play a role.
Whether it is transmission by water: does water play an important role in transmission, and therefore, in terms of irrigation networks, is there anything that could be done to limit the spread? of illness?

“

And in the same way, can all weeds at the edge of fields transmit the bacteria?
We also know that this is most likely a recent and unique introduction, since we currently find a fairly low diversity of strains, which are closer, for the moment, to strains originating from India.

», explains the plant pathologist.

The challenges of research into the disease and its modes of transmission are therefore enormous.

Yield losses on infected plots can be up to 70%: a real threat to the agricultural economy and the country's food security.

Read alsoMadagascar: faced with the sudden rise in rice, the capital's markets are struggling

Madagascar: vascular bacteriosis, a contagious disease on rice, worries researchers

Madagascar: vascular bacteriosis, a contagious disease on rice, worries researchers

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