Efficacy of Bacterial endophytes against Rice pathogens under in vitro conditions

In an attempt to develop effective biocontrol system for management of sheath blight and stem rot diseases in rice, seven bacterial endophytes were isolated from the rice leaves and evaluated for their antagonistic activity against Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotium oryzae. Among seven isolates, two isolates viz., CEY3 and CES7 showed highest pathogen suppression of sheath blight and stem rot as (60.0% & 56.5%) and (52.2%, 58.0%), respectively.