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Shallot (Allium cepaL. var.ascalonicum) is the most traditional vegetable crop in Ethiopia. Shallot is susceptible to a number of diseases that reduce yield and quality, among which fusarium basal rot (FBR) caused byFusarium oxysporumf.sp.cepae (Foc)is one of the most important yield limiting factors in Ethiopia. The present study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness ofBrassicacrops for the management of shallot FBR on shallot. The experiments were carried out at Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center using cabbage (Brassica oleracea), garden cress (Lepidium sativum), Ethiopia mustard (B. carinata), and rapeseed (B. napus). The evaluations were done underin vitroand greenhouse conditions. Underin vitrotest condition it was confirmed that extracts of Ethiopian mustard and rapeseed showed higher inhibition on the growth ofFocpathogen compared to control. Data on seedling emergence, plant height, plant stand, disease incidence, severity, cull bulbs, and bulb weight were collected in greenhouse experiment. The green manure amendments of rapeseed and Ethiopian mustard significantly reduced disease incidence by 21% and 30% and disease severity by 23% and 29%, respectively. However the plant emergency was not significantly different among treatments in greenhouse test. These results indicated that Ethiopian mustard and rapeseed crops have potential as green manure for the management of FBR disease of shallot crop.

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A 2-year experiment was conducted at wilt sick plot infested with natural occurring Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceris at Adet Agricultural Research Center in northwestern Ethiopia with an aim to evaluate effective chickpea varieties and fungicides for the management of chickpea fusarium wilt in order to integrate chickpea varieties and fungicides. Four varieties, namely, Shasho, Arerti, Marye, and local, two fungicides, namely, Apron Star and mancozeb, and untreated local chickpea were used as treatments. Treatments were arranged in a factorial combination in randomized complete block design in three replications. There were significant differences at p<0.05 in the overall mean of fusarium wilt disease incidence, area under disease progress curve %-day, yield and yield components among varieties and fungicides treatments. Data were analyzed using SAS system version 9.2. The results indicated that the maximum disease incidence and area under disease progress curve values 65.62% and 578.5%-day, respectively, were recorded from untreated local chickpea, while the minimum disease incidence and area under disease progress curve values 23.41% and 147%-day, respectively, were recorded from Shasho variety treated with Apron Star. The maximum biomass and grain yield of 6.71 t/ha and 4.6 t/ha, respectively, were recorded from Shasho variety treated with Apron Star while the minimum biomass and grain yield of 0.62 t/ha and 0.21 t/ha, respectively, were recorded from untreated local chickpea. Thus, the experiment results suggested that the variety of Shasho treated with fungicide Apron Star caused significant reduction in chickpea fusarium wilt incidence leading to a corresponding increase in grain yield of chickpea.

In Ethiopia, maize is the staple food and one of the main sources of calories particularly in the major maize producing-regions of the country. Survey was conducted to determine the prevalence, incidence and severity of foliar maize diseases in North Gondar Zone. A total of 150 farmers' fields were randomly sampled from five districts (Chilga, Gondar zuria, Takussa, Metema and Dembia) in North Gondar Zone of Amhara Region during cropping seasons of 2015 and 2016 years. Five quadrants were examined per farmers' field for estimation of maize foliar disease incidence and severity infestation. This was done followed by pathogen isolation and disease identification laboratory procedures. Both of two years surveyed data were collected, analyzed and expressed using simple percentage. Results indicated that the dominant maize diseases were caused by Exserohilum turcicum, Puccinia sorghi and Cercospora zeae-maydis pathogen. Maize disease incidence of E. turcicum ranged from 50 to 80%, P. sorghi 19 to 62% whereas that of C. zeae-maydis reached 42% on foliar maize disease. In addition 3-19% of disease incidence of maize streak virus was recorded from seemingly healthy maize plants. Among four identified diseases Turcicum leaf blight (TLB), Common leaf rust (CLR) and Gray leaf spot (GLS) were recorded as major disease, while maize streak virus (MSV) was as minor disease. The present study provides an indication of the incidence and severity of foliar diseases of maize on which management strategies could be derived to improve the maize production in the surveyed areas.

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is the leading oil seed crop produced in Ethiopia. It is the second most important agricultural commodity for export market in the country. It is well suited as an alternative crop production system, and it has low crop water requirement with moderate resistance to soil moisture deficit. The low land of North Western Ethiopia is the major sesame producer in the country, and the entire production is from rainfed. The rainfall distribution in North Western Ethiopia is significantly varied. This significant rainfall variability hampers the productivity of sesame. Irrigation agriculture has the potential to stabilize crop production and mitigate the negative impacts of variable rainfall. This study was proposed to identify critical growth stages during which sesame is most vulnerable to soil moisture deficit and to evaluate the crop water productivity of sesame under deficit irrigation. The performance of sesame to stage-wise and uniform deficit irrigation scheduling technique was tested at Gondar Agricultural Research Center (Metema Station), Northern Western Ethiopia. Eight treatments, four stage-wise deficit, two uniform deficit, one above optimal, and one optimal irrigation applications, were evaluated during the 2017 irrigation season. The experiment was designed as a randomized complete block design with three replications. Plant phenological variables, grain yield and crop water productivity, were used for performance evaluation. The result showed that deficit irrigation can be applied both throughout and at selected growth stages except the midseason stage. Imposing deficit during the midseason gave the lowest yield indicating the severe effect of water deficit during flowering and capsule initiation stages. When deficit irrigation is induced throughout, a 25% uniform deficit irrigation can give the highest crop water productivity with no or little yield reduction as compared with optimal irrigation. Implementing deficit irrigation scheduling technique will be beneficial for sesame production. Imposing 75% deficit at the initial, development, late season growth stages or 25% deficit irrigation throughout whole seasons will improve sesame crop water productivity.

Plantation forests are established by planting <i>Eucalyptus</i> tree species to provide timber and pulp for the construction industries and to meet the energy needs in Ethiopia. Besides the extensive <i>Eucalyptus</i> plantations in the country, fungal pathogen-related diseases are the main challenges to successful production and management. The disease survey was conducted in the <i>Eucalyptus</i> growing areas of Ethiopia during 2019/2020 and 2020/2021. The objective of this research was to assess the diseases associated with <i>Eucalyptus</i> plant species and identify the causal fungal species. Plants of <i>E. camaldulensis</i> were the dominant species in the survey fields and were severely associated with stem and branch canker diseases. Diseased samples were collected and fungal species were identified as <i>Didymellaceae</i> according to culture morphology and affirmed by internal transcribed spacer sequence analysis. In phylogeny, isolates in the study and a reference strain formed supportive monophyletic clades with strong 90% and 95% support with <i>Didymella coffeae-arabicae</i> and <i>Didymella pinodella</i> respectively. Pathogenicity tests revealed that <i>Didymellaceae</i> could infect <i>E. camaldulensis</i>. The findings are the first reports of <i>Eucalyptus</i> stem canker disease caused by <i>Didymellaceae</i> in Ethiopia.