The mission of the Plant Protection Group is to develop the management methods for rice and vegetables mainly in the Tohoku region in order to efficiently reduce the damages caused by plant diseases and insects.
Recent progress
- We showed that rice blast disease and the associated yield loss can be effectively controlled and reduced by utilizing "Alarming information system based on weather prediction data using Google MapR".
- We showed that the risk causing pecky rice damage can be evaluated by the area of source habitat within a 300 m radius by examining the relationship between the area of source habitat of two mirid pest bug species and degree of pecky rice damage.
- For the soilborne diseases of fruit vegetables, we showed that soil pH correction using converter slag is effective in reducing the damage by soil borne Fusarium diseases. This method is also effective for the bacterial wilt disease of tomato, and we demonstrated that the mechanism is not derived from sterilization.
- We developed a novel method to suppress the Fusarium wilt of melon by a combined treatment of a plant protective microbe, converter slag, and a plant activator to melon seedlings before field transplant. We also demonstrated this method to be effective against a bacterial wilt disease of tomato.
Current focus
- Developing methods to support the decision-making in controlling rice blast disease utilizing information and communications technologies (ICTs) such as meteorological data, etc.
- Improving the risk evaluating method of rice damage by pecky rice bugs
- Developing methods to prevent the rot diseases of onion
The sorghum plant bug Stenotus rubrovittatus causes pecky rice damage
Group Leader
Group Members
- Megumi YOSHIDA
- Atsushi NAGASAKA
- Iori IMAZAKI
- Ken TABUCHI
- Ryuji UESUGI
- Mitsue TSUJI
- Kohsuke OHTA
- Hideto YOSHIMURA
