author(s)
A Soti, S Bhandari, A Acharya and S Shrestha

abstract
A trial for screening early maturing rice varieties against insect pests was conducted in the field of Innovative Research and Development Center, Jhapa during the period from April to July, 2019 to identify resistance hybrid rice varieties against rice earhead bug. The trial was designed in randomized complete block design with three replications. A set of eleven rice varieties (10 Chinese hybrid variety developed by Hi-tech Seed Co. Ltd., China and 1 Nepalese variety improved by NARC, Nepal) were evaluated in the field trial. Rice ear-head bug was found as the major insect pests of rice in the trial field and caused significant damage on all rice varieties. The percentage of grain damaged by rice earhead bug was highest in G-119 (40.03%) and found to be highly susceptible. Similarly, lower damaged in G-112 (10.62%) and found to be moderately susceptible among other the screened varieties. The highest yield (5.032 ton/ha) was produced by G-112, whereas the lowest (3.290 ton/ha) by G-119 hybrid rice varieties.