Detection and Identification of Major Seed Mycoflora Associated with Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars Grown in Kashmir, India

Worldwide, rice is a significant crop for food production. The main requirement for increased yield and production is high-quality seed. While being exported, seeds and grains have the risk of being associated with pathogenic as well as non-pathogenic microflora. As a result, they are frequently inspected in accordance with phytosanitary laws to stop diseases from spreading into new areas and also to have an impact on the quality of the seeds. Fungal infections that infect rice seeds are regulated by phytosanitary laws and can be identified using several techniques for checking seed health. Therefore, in accordance with the recommendations of International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), stored seeds of seeds of four rice varieties (SR-2, SR-3, SR-4, and SR-5) were studied to investigate the occurrence of seed-associated fungal mycoflora using the blotter paper and agar plate method. In both blotter and agar tests, four fungal species namely as Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizopus stolonifer, Alternaria alternata, and Trichoderma harzianum were isolated from different test varieties of rice. There was 5.667%, 8.333%, 4.333% ,9.667% by blotter test and 7.667%, 11.667%, 6.333%, 12.667% by agar test mycoflora associated with the seeds of SR-2, SR-3, SR-4 and SR-5.