Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science 5(3): 261-267 (2020) https://doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2020.050305 This content is available online at AESA Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science Journal homepage: journals.aesacademy.org/index.php/aaes e-ISSN: 2456-6632 ARTICLE HISTORY ABSTRACT Received: 25 June 2020 Revised received: 12 August 2020 Accepted: 18 September 2020 Fusarium moniliforme is one of the important seed-borne fungi responsible for foot rot disease in rice. The study was conducted at the Plant Pathology Division of NARC, Khumaltar from July- December 2019 to fnd out the level of seed infection of F. moniliforme in different varieties of rice from mid-hills of Nepal. A total of 20 seed samples of different varieties of rice with 240 seeds of each sample were tested following a deep-freeze blotter method distrib- uting 80 seeds per replication and maintaining 3 replications. Seed to seedling transmission test was carried out under screen house conditions. Two hundred seeds of each highly infect- ed fve varieties from laboratory test data were planted in eight pots, twenty-fve seeds per pot, and categorized into four replications. Component plating was done to determine the location of F. moniliforme infection in a seed. Data analysis was done using STAR at a 5% level of signifcance. There was a signifcant difference among all the varieties. The highest incidence of F. moniliforme infection was found in seeds of Khumal-9 variety and lowest in Fan-10 variety. From seed to seedling transmission test, Khumal-4 variety was found highly susceptible to foot rot among the 5 varieties planted. Transmission percentage of disease from seed to seedling was found ranging from 16.19-72.31%. Equally, Component plating concludes that seed coat, as well as endosperm, was the location of F. moniliforme infection in rice seed. Foot rot being one of the serious diseases of rice at present time researches should be done more on this for its effective management and control. Seed health status testifcation before taking seeds to the feld should be done so that timely control like seed treatment could be applied to control the outbreak of the disease in the feld. ©2020 Agriculture and Environmental Science Academy Keywords Component Plating Deep-freeze Blotters Fusarium moniliforme Foot rot STAR Citation of this article: Pandey, P., Timila, R.D. and Airee, S. (2020). Seeds infection of Fusarium moniliforme in different Rice varieties grown in mid-hills of Nepal. Archives of Agriculture and Environmental Science, 5(3): 261-267, https://dx.doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2020.050305 Seeds infection of Fusarium moniliforme in different Rice varieties grown in mid-hills of Nepal Poonam Pandey 1 , Ram Devi Timila 2 and Sandeep Airee 3* 1 Himalayan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Kathmandu, NEPAL, 2 Plant Pathology Divisions, NARC, Khumaltar, Lalitpur, NEPAL, 3 Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan, NEPAL * Corresponding author’s E-mail: sandeepairee@gmail.com INTRODUCTION Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a major cereal crop after wheat and maize with a total harvested area of 167 million hectares, producing more than 782 million tons annually all over the world (FAO, 2018). In Nepal, the total area under rice cultiva- tion during the year 2018/19 was 1.4 million hectares with annual production of 5.6 million tons of paddy with an average productivity of 3.76 Mt/ha (MOAD, 2018/19). Foot rot also known as “bakanae disease”, caused by Fusarium moniliforme has recently emerged as a signifcantly important disease in all the countries where rice is grown (Venturini et al., 2013). Fusarium moniliforme is well represented among the communities of soil-borne fungi, in every type of soil all over the world. This species is also considered a normal constituent of the fungal communities in the rhizosphere of plants (Hassanein et al., 2016). In the mid-hill region of Nepal incidence of foot rot in rice has been increasing. Initially, based on different morphological studies many plant pathologists reported F. moniliforme was the only species involved in causing foot rot disease of rice. But later ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE