Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important staple cereal crop which is consumed by more than 50% of world population. It contributes 23% and 50% of total calories consumed by world and Nepalese population respectively. Among various abiotic factors affecting rice, rice blast is the most disastrous, causing 70-80% yield loss. This disease was originated in China around 7000 years ago. In Nepal, it was first reported in Thimi, Bhaktapur in 1966. It is caused by a filamentous ascomycete fungus Magnaporthe oryzae (Anaemorphic form- Pyricularia oryzae). It infects all the developmental stage of plant and produce symptoms on the leaf, collar, neck, panicle and even in the glumes. It decreases the rice production by an amount, enough to feed 60 million people every year. Cloudy weather, high relative humidity (93-99%), low night temperature (15- 20°C), longer duration of dew is the most favorable condition for the outbreak of disease. The most usual approaches for the management of rice blast diseases are management in nutrient fertilizer and irrigation, application of fungicides and plantation of resistant cultivars. Besides, the use of extracts of C. arabica are reported to have an inhibitory effect on the disease. Seed treatment with Trichoderma viridae @ 5ml/lit of water have also been found effective. The chemical means of controlling blast disease shall be reduced, instead eco-friendly measures like biocontrol agents, resistant varieties, plant extracts can be practiced for disease control. Different forecasting model can be used in order to predict the disease prevalence.

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At Banganga, Kapilbastu, Nepal, a field experiment was conducted in the spring of 2021 to determine the performances of transplanted spring rice under different weed management techniques. With five treatments and four replications, the experiment was structured as a single-factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD). The treatments consisted of Pretilachlor 50% EC (dose: 500 ml a.i. per acre) as pre-emergence herbicide, Pretilachlor 50% EC (dose: 500 ml a.i. per acre) as pre-emergence herbicide plus hand weeding at 20, 40 DAT, Hand weeding at 20 DAT, 40 DAT, 60 DAT, Cono-weeding at 20 DAT, 40 DAT, 60 DAT and control. The plots treated with Pretilachlor plus hand weeding recorded a significantly higher plant height (99cm), higher number of effective tillers per meter square (11.97), higher panicle length (26cm), and higher number of grains per panicle (200.60) at 90 DAT. The sterility percentage and the no. of grains per panicle were not affected by the weed management practices. Cono-weeding was found statistically superior in terms of grain yield (6.09 Mt ha-1) and harvest index (42.10 %). The experiment concluded that the weed management practices affect the grain yield of transplanted spring rice.