Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(4): 2250-2265 2250 Review Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.904.270 An Overview of Bacterial Leaf Blight Disease of Rice and Different Strategies for its Management Sumit Shekhar*, Diksha Sinha and Anita Kumari Department of Plant Pathology, Bihar Agriculture College, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar, India - 813210 *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Rice (Oryza sativa L), is consider as queen of the cereal crops because of its importance as staple food of about half of the world‟s population (Qudsia et al., 2017). The bacterial leaf blight disease of rice caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae and huge losses in form of quantitative and qualitative of rice. In world, due to this disease yield loss was estimated approx 50% (Shekhar and Kumar, 2020) and in India 81.3% (Prasad et al., 2018; Swati et al., 2015). Several biotic and abiotic factors are the main constraint for reducing the production and productivity of rice. Among the biotic factors, diseases (26%), insects (20%) and weeds (23%) are affecting large amount of yield loss, both in terms of quality and quantity. Rice crop is affected by more than 36 fungal, 21 viral and 6 bacterial diseases. The major diseases affect the production and productivity of rice crop International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 4 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Rice crop accounts for nearly a third of the total area under food grains in India and is the staple food for a significant portion of the world‟s population. Widely varying factors influence the growth of rice in different rice growing areas and render the crop susceptible to various pathogenic and non-pathogenic diseases, resulting in extensive damage of grain and straw yield. Bacterial leaf blight disease of rice caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo) is a serious menace to rice production in India, besides other rice producing countries. Elaborate studies have been conducted on the genetics of host-pathogen interaction of BLB and exploitation of host resistance to combat the disease. This article comprehensively reviews the etiology, symptomatology, pathogen biology, disease development, disease cycle, epidemics and epidemiology, geographical distribution and strategies for the disease management viz., exploitation of host plant resistance, cultural, physical, chemical and biological control. Keywords BLB, Xoo, Rice, Host resistance, Disease management Accepted: 18 March 2020 Available Online: 10 April 2020 Article Info