In South Sulawesi rice tungro virus (RTV) disease was found to be endemic in double‐cropped areas, where it was likely to be carried over to the next season in stubbles, ratoons or volunteer plants. The leaf hopper vector,Nephotettix virescenspopulation started to increase 2–3 months after sowing both in wet and dry seasons, and it constituted more than 80% of total green leaf hopper recorded. It was found consistently that incidence of RTV increased with increase of the vector population. Late plantings were more vulnerable to vector infestation and tungro incidence in both wet‐ and dry‐season crops. Tungro epidemics were likely to occur more in the wet season than in dry season due to availability of large vector population.