Trials were conducted on the Thrace Agricultural Research Institute, Turkey in 2013. Three rice cultivars grown in Turkey (Halilbey and the advanced lines, Osmancık/Rus and Kral/Diana from the Turkish national breeding program) and two resistant cultivars from the International Rice Research Institute (Asahi and Rinaldo Bersani) were used to determine the effects of rice white-tip nematode, Aphelenchoides besseyi, on yield and yield components of rice. Infested plots that were created with a combination of infected seeds and supplemental inoculation with A. besseyi at the seedling stage and uninfested plots were compared. Yield was significantly reduced (P < 0.01) in nematode-infested plots in comparison with the control. The cultivars Halilbey, Rinaldo Bersani, Osmancık/Rus, Kral/Diana, and Asahi exhibited 36.2%, 18.1%, 19.3%, 28.2%, and 7.9% yield reduction, respectively. Nematode infection also reduced other agronomic traits including paddy and milled rice 1,000-kernel weight by 4.5% and 6.6%, respectively, and milled rice yield by 7.1%.
