Rice root knot nematode, Meloidogyne graminicola 

Symptoms

Symptom on root	Aerial symptom

• Characteristic horse shoe shape or fish hook like galls on roots
• Newly emerged leaves appear distorted and crinkled along the margins
• Stunting in patches
• Chlorosis
• Heavily infested plants flower and mature early
• Reduction in no. of tillers
• Size of the earhead  is reduced with reduced no. of grains

Management

• Keep the crop always in submerged conditions
• Cultural control includes continuous flooding, raising the rice seedlings in flooded soils.
• Crop rotation
• These practices will help to prevent root invasion by the nematodes.
• Soil solarization with 25µ LLDP (Low Light Density Polythene) sheets for 3 weeks before preparation of fields.