Biotic Stress Management in Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Through Conventional and Molecular Approaches

The rice (Oryza sativa L.) productivity is often adversely disturbed by several abiotic and biotic stresses such as drought, submergence, fungal, bacterial, and nematode oriented biotic diseases and pest like brown plant hopper (BPH) and stem borer (SB). The major biotic stresses such as bacterial leaf blight (BLB), sheath blight (ShB), blast, brown spot (BS), false smut (FS), brown plant hopper (BPH), yellow stem borer (YSB), and gall midge (GM) play crucial roles in decreasing the productivity and quality of rice grains. Among the several breeding procedures and various control measures available for mitigating the biotic stresses/factors, the host plant resistance is most effective, economic and eco-friendly which is basically developed by traditional breeding approaches. The related species of rice and wild sources are important for identification of many resistance genes/QTLs, which are successfully introgressed or deployed or pyramided in numerous breeding lines through resistance breeding program and various molecular approaches. In this chapter, an inclusive valuation of the conventional and molecular approaches for mitigating the biotic stresses in rice by imparting major resistance sources has been presented.