Basmati rice
worth $2 billion was exported from India during 2009–
10 (Website 1). Basmati rice germplasm including
improved cultivars are highly susceptible to biotic and
abiotic stresses. Among the biotic stresses, bacterial
blight (BB) caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae,
blast caused by Magnoporthae oryzae and sheath
blight (ShB) caused by Rhizoctonia solani not only
cause severe yield losses but also impair the quality of
the rice grain (Singh et al. 2011).