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Pathogenic microorganisms severely limit world food supply with 11,000 diseases of microbial origin. Although the use of biological control agents to combat plant diseases piled up a plethora of investigations, under field conditions the attempts met with varying success due to problems encountered in colonization and establishment in the introduced environment. Hence, endophytes have been recognized as better candidates for plant colonization as they make an intimate association with plants. Rhizoctonia solani is an aggressive fungal pathogen of rice in humid tropics causing sheath blight disease. Production of hardy vegetative propagules called sclerotia that can survive for several years in soil makes controlling the disease difficult. In this book, use of soil inhabiting and rice endophytic bacteria to control R. solani establishment on rice plant is showcased. Manipulation of soil physical, chemical and biological factors by soil solarization to reduce soil sclerotial bank under field conditions is also discussed. This book will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students in plant pathology, microbiology, agriculture, soil biology, plant sciences and environmental sciences.

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C.M. Nanayakkara, B. Sc, M. Sc., Ph.D. in Agricultural Microbiology at Aberdeen University.Senior Lecturer at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

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