Philippines to pan out method to detect rice viruses

The Philippine government is developing a fast, efficient and accurate method to detect viruses in rice and this is expected to be completed within the year or next year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Wednesday.

The department said the method, being developed by the Philippine Rice Research Institute with the support from DA's Biotechnology Program, aims to enable farmers to know if their crops are in danger of damage or loss even before any virus symptoms appear.

"The method is known as loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) and its procedure is known to be user friendly and relatively faster that previous biotechnological methods employed to detect rice viruses," the DA said.

Preliminary LAMP results have been very promising with the outcomes showing that rice viruses can be detected a day after inoculation (DAI), strongly contrasting the three DAIs required for virus symptoms to appear, it added.

Conventionally, assessment of rice virus disease incidence is done by visually inspecting the plants for symptoms, which happen when the disease is already prevalent.

DA said conventional assessment is not very reliable because symptoms are, in some cases, due to other factors such as nutrient or water deficiency.

It said many stakeholders are already waiting for the final results of the study which "could mean reduced misdiagnosis of rice diseases and timely delivery of pest management systems for farmers that would eventually translate to the reduction of costs from misuse and expenditure of pesticides." Endi