Susceptibility of 14 upland rice varieties/lines to plant-parasitic nematodes

Rice is the third most important cereal crop in the world after wheat and maize, and the second most important in Africa after maize. In Burkina Faso, average annual rice production between 2010 and 2019 is estimated at 324,611 tonnes, representing less than half the country's needs. The susceptibility of fourteen (14) rice varieties and lines was conducted against plant-parasitic nematodes during the 2019-2020 wet cropping season at INERA, Farako-Bâ station (Bobo-Dioulasso). Five (5) main genera of parasitic nematodes of upland rice were identified and are represented by Pratylenchus, Meloidogyne, Helicotylenchus, Scutellonema and Criconemella. The root-knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica and the root-lesion nematode Pratylenchus brachyurus are considered the most important. Eight (8) lines from the Oryza sativa (Asian rice) x O. barthii (wild rice) cross and the FOFIFA (O. sativa) x NERICA (interspecific O. sativa x O. glaberrima) showed zero population densities of Meloidogyne javanica in soil (0 nematodes/dm3 soil) and low densities of Pratylenchus brachyurus in roots (less than 10 nematodes/g root).