THE "FIGHT TO BLAST" ITALIAN PROJECT: FROM RESEARCH TO PRACTICE"

Blast (Pyricularia oryzae) and rice exist in an environment in which man’s actions play a key role in determining the diffusion and aggressiveness of the pathogen. Air-spores are the most important source of infection but meteorological conditions and intensive high-input rice cultivation can greatly affect the spread of this disease. As well as in the rest of the world, blast cannot be definitively eliminated from the Italian paddy fields; it can cause marginal losses (2012 and 2013 Italian growing season) or devastating outbreaks (2008). In the large scenario of the Italian rice cultivation, “Fight to Blast” stands for being a Project in which knowledge gained in scientific studies have been transformed into practical solutions. Started in 2009, supported by the Agricultural Department of Vercelli Province, it’s based on an over twenty years multidisciplinary study carried on by researchers of the Pavia University. The Project is now applied to an about 110.000 ha production area and it runs in real-time from the half of June till the end of August, by means of the below listed information: 1. daily concentration and fluctuation of air-borne infective spores of P. oryzae; 2. meteorological parameters favouring the virulence of the pathogen; 3. phytosanitary situation of both experimental and cultivated fields; 4. simulations of the dynamic deterministic model “SiRBInt - Simulation of Rice-Blast Interaction”, appositely created for temperate rice growing areas. The final output of the work are biweekly bulletins, one for each environmentally different monitored area, in which results of the actions are traduced in four risk levels, from “0 - no risk of disease” to “3 - high risk” (resistant rice varieties and/or unfavourable to blast field management included). This disease-forecast is a free-service, every Monday and Thursday afternoon both on-line published and transmitted as SMSs. The feedback of technicians and farmers is positive and, year after year, the number of followers is increasing. “Fight to Blast” can really facilitate in formulating tricky decision rules on the basis of the available biological knowledge. It’s a successful example of how even an extremely complex academic study can become a practice and useful action tool.