Carried out by the regional Phytosanitary Service from the second half of June to the third week of August
The Department of Agriculture of the Piedmont Region, through the Phytosanitary Sector and Scientific Technical Services, also launches for 2024 the “Brusone del riso” alert service whose main purpose is the production of a biweekly bulletin of warning on the conditions of risk of development of the disease in the Piedmontese territory. The service, which has been operational for about ten years, is the result of collaboration between the Piedmont Region, Iser Srl, the National Rice Authority and the Novara Agricultural Foundation. It is divided into the following activities:
- field aeromycological monitoring using spore captators, aimed at quantifying infectious spores on a daily basis;
- agrometeorological monitoring through the use of data collected by 7 monitoring stations belonging to the Agrometeorological Network of the Piedmont Region;
- phytopathological surveillance, both in local crops and in spy fields specially set up near the detection instruments;
- data processing and application of the predictive epidemiological model (SiRBInt, Simulation of Rice Blast Interaction) necessary to report the moments characterized by the weather conditions most predisposing to the disease and production of the bi-weekly bulletin.
These actions are conducted fromthe second half of June until the third week of August. Monitoring is carried out on seven representative rice-growing areas, selected in order to guarantee complete coverage of the rice-growing territory of the provinces of Alessandria, Novara and Vercelli.
First bulletin on June 24th
The bulletin is published on the official website of the Piemonte region in the “Bulletin Noticeboard” section for broad and free consultation. The first bulletin will be issued Monday 24 June. At the same time, the widespread dissemination of the Brusone rice bulletin was activated by the Ente Nazionale Risi via text messages to Piedmontese rice growers, newspapers and other interested institutions. This operational support is part of the institutional activities of the regional phytosanitary sector aimed at promoting and supporting crop production and management techniques compatible with the protection of the ecosystem, natural resources and landscape, useful for mitigating and counteracting changes climate change and to rationalize the use of available resources.
