No abstract

Sesame is one of the important oil crops in Ethiopia for the international market while its production has challenged by lack of appropriate agronomic practices, weather uncertainties, weeds, insects and diseases outbreaks. Bacterial leaf blight caused by Xanthomonas campestris PV. sesami is the most common and inflicts heavy qualitative and quantitative losses. The objectives of the present study were to assess bacterial blight incidence, severity and its association with agronomic practices in north Gondar Ethiopia. A Field survey was conducted in Metema and Mirab Armachiho in 2014 cropping season at flowering and fruiting growth stages. A total of 80 fields were assessed for the disease assessment from both large and small-scale farmers. Data on prevalence, incidence, severity and, management practices have been recorded. All surveyed fields were infected both at flowering and fruiting stage of the crop. Mean incidence over the two districts varied from 78% at Metema to 96.5% at Mirab Armachiho. The minimum mean severity (6.1%) has been recorded in Metema district and, the highest mean severity (76.9%) has been recorded at Mirab Armachiho. The association of independent variables with bacterial blight incidence and severity were varied. The district, variety, growth stage, altitude, slope, crop density, previous crop, soil type, and weed density variables have significantly associated with bacterial blight incidence. Variables producer and sowing date were non-significant as a single predictor in the logistic regression model. Similarly, all the variables were significantly associated with bacterial blight severity.     

Sesame is an important cash crop in Ethiopia. In Humera, farmers are largely dependent on this important cash crop for their living. The production rate is, however, lower than the national average. There could be many factors for its reduced productivity, but pests especially sesame seed bug is one of the reasons. In this study, sesame seed weight loss due to sesame seed bug was determined at field and laboratory conditions. At both conditions, there was significant seed weight loss when the packaging materials were unlined jute and unlined polythene bags, although the loss at field conditions was severe. In both setups, there was small seed weight loss when the packaging materials were lined. This could be due to moisture loss from the seeds because the bugs could not penetrate the lined bags. From these, farmers are advised to use lined bags for storage and transport the harvested seeds to their stores as soon as possible.

The experiment was conducted in the plant protection laboratory of the Humera Agricultural Research Center to study the biology of sesame seed bug, Elasmolomus sordidus (Fabricius), Hemiptera: Lygaeidae. E.sordidus is considered as the most important harvest and post-harvest insect pest of sesame in North western Ethiopia. The rearing and other tests were conducted in the laboratory at 28-330C and 50 to 65% RH. The result of this laboratory investigation indicated that the mean egg incubation period was 5.4± 0.05 days while the total mean nymphal duration took 18.44±0.10. A mean adult lifespan of 20.24±0.19 days was recorded. The mean lifespan from egg to adult death was 44.08 days, which range from 32-54 days. The reproductive period was 7.08 ± 0.26 days and the peak laying period was on the first and second day of its reproductive days. Even though E.sordidus was present the whole year high outbreak was recorded at harvest (October) and continued up to January, which afterward declined until the next harvest time.

The experiment was conducted in the plant protection laboratory of the Humera Agricultural Research Center to study the biology of sesame seed bug, Elasmolomus sordidus (Fabricius), Hemiptera: Lygaeidae. E.sordidus is considered as the most important harvest and post-harvest insect pest of sesame in North western Ethiopia. The rearing and other tests were conducted in the laboratory at 28-330C and 50 to 65% RH. The result of this laboratory investigation indicated that the mean egg incubation period was 5.4± 0.05 days while the total mean nymphal duration took 18.44±0.10. A mean adult lifespan of 20.24±0.19 days was recorded. The mean lifespan from egg to adult death was 44.08 days, which range from 32-54 days. The reproductive period was 7.08 ± 0.26 days and the peak laying period was on the first and second day of its reproductive days. Even though E.sordidus was present the whole year high outbreak was recorded at harvest (October) and continued up to January, which afterward declined until the next harvest time.

No abstract

The Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation uses a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (Netherlands) licence for its reports. The user may copy, distribute and transmit the work and create derivative works. Third-party material that has been used in the work and to which intellectual property rights apply may not be used without prior permission of the third party concerned. The user must specify the name as stated by the author or licence holder of the work, but not in such a way as to give the impression that the work of the user or the way in which the work has been used are being endorsed. The user may not use this work for commercial purposes. The Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation accepts no liability for any damage arising from the use of the results of this research or the application of the recommendations.

The agricultural sector in Ethiopia is facing a major challenge due to low crop productivity and production caused by pests. To overcome this issue, the use of pesticides is essential. However, the misuse of pesticides is a common practice in the country. To tackle this problem, RAISE-FS project organized a workshop that brought together stakeholders from various sectors. The workshop identified key challenges, opportunities, and leverage points in the pesticide life cycle and discussed ways to address them. The stakeholders discussed registration, formulation, import, marketing, transporting, storage, use, waste disposal, human health, and environmental concerns related to pesticides. By implementing the recommendations from this workshop, Ethiopia can enhance its agricultural productivity sustainably.