From the Department of Agriculture
PhilRice’s new study in rice virus detection shows promising results which could mean reduced misdiagnosis of rice diseases and improved delivery of pest management systems.
File photo (Official Gazette)
The Philippine Rice Research Institute, with support from the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Biotechnology Program, is developing a fast, efficient and accurate method to detect viruses in rice. This method aims to enable farmers know if their crops are in danger of damage or loss even before any virus symptoms appear.
Initiated in August 2012, the project is expected to be completed within the year or early next year. The method is known as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and its procedure is known to be user friendly and relatively faster that previous biotechnological methods employed to detect rice viruses.
Conventionally, assessment of rice virus disease incidence is done by visually inspecting the plants for symptoms, which happen when the disease is already prevalent. Conventional assessment is not very reliable because symptoms are, in some cases, due to other factors such as nutrient or water deficiency.
Preliminary LAMP results have been very promising with the outcomes showing that rice viruses can be detected a day after inoculation (DAI), strongly contrasting the three DAIs required for virus symptoms to appear.
Many stakeholders are already waiting for the final results of the study which could mean reduced misdiagnosis of rice diseases and timely delivery of pest management systems for farmers that would eventually translate to the reduction of costs from misuse and expenditure of pesticides.
da.gov.ph