Vikas Kumar, Ankita Dubey, Dr. Vindeshwari Prasad, Manish Kumar Maurya and Saurabh Dixit5
Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important cereal crops and serves as a staple food for more than half of the worldâs population. Sheath blight, caused by Rhizoctonia solani Kühn, is one of the most destructive diseases of rice and can cause yield losses of up to 54.3% under severe infection. The present study was conducted during Kharif 2025â26 at the Crop Research Station, ANDUAT, Masodha, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, to identify potential sources of resistance against sheath blight. A total of 325 advanced rice genotypes were evaluated under artificial inoculated field conditions and disease reactions were assessed based on relative lesion height using the Standard Evaluation System (SES) of IRRI (2014). None of the genotypes exhibited immune or highly resistant reactions. However, eleven genotypes, namely 32378, 32396, 31640, 32510, 32526, 32530, NDR-8002, 32560, 32752, 31976 and 28864, exhibited resistant reactions (score 3), whereas 160 genotypes were classified as moderately resistant. Further, 146 genotypes were found susceptible and eight genotypes were highly susceptible. The absence of immune and highly resistant genotypes indicates the narrow resistance spectrum available in the tested germplasm. Nevertheless, the identified resistant genotypes may serve as valuable donors in breeding programmes for the development of sheath blight resistant rice cultivars and sustainable disease management.