Participatory evaluation of faba bean gall disease (Olpidium viciae) management options in the highland disease hotspot areas of South-Eastern Amhara Region, Ethiopia: An integrated approach

Abstract

Faba bean is an important pulse crop in area coverage and volume of annual production in Ethiopia. However, the productivity is still far below its potential mainly due to the emerging faba bean gall disease. This study, therefore, aimed to evaluate and demonstrate the integrated disease management options of using a combination of Noble 25 WP fungicide and moderately disease-resistant varieties. The treatment arrangement was designed as an un-replicated simple block considering farmers as replications. Foliar application of Noble 25 WP fungicide was used at a rate of 1 kg ha −1 using 400 l ha −1 water. The agronomic, economic, and farmer preference data were collected and analyzed in descriptive statistics. The result revealed that the highest grain yield of 3.96 tons ha −1 was obtained from a sprayed plot of Gora variety and had an overall yield advantage of 130.8% over farmers' unsprayed local variety under the existing practice. Besides, the highest final faba bean gall disease percent severity of 45.6% was recorded from the unsprayed control plots. Using a combination of Gora improved variety with foliar application of the fungicide reduced the severity of the disease by 59.3% compared with that of the sprayed local variety. Similarly based on the partial budget analysis result, the highest (783.8%) marginal rate of return was obtained from the use of Yehuala Kassa ABOUT THE AUTHOR Yehuala Kassa is an Agricultural extension and Socioeconomics researcher in Debre Birhan Agricultural Research Center, Amhara Agricultural Research Institute, Ethiopia. He obtained his BSc degree in the field of Rural Development and Family Science from Hawassa University in July 2011. He then received his MSc degree in the field of Rural Development Management from Bahir Dar University in March 2019. His research interest mainly focuses on agricultural extension, technology promotion, and agricultural value chain and technology adoption studies. Previously he has published the

Faba Bean (Vicia faba L.) Variety Evaluation for Disease Resistance, Yield, and Agronomic Traits in South Gondar, Ethiopia

“…Numan had the greatest gall severity value (30.46%), whereas Gora had the lowest (21.02%) severity (Figures 3 and 4). Similarly, Wondwosen et al [36] and Kassa et al [34] reported the Gora variety to be moderately resistant to faba bean gall disease, with the lowest severity value, which is consistent with the results of this study. Furthermore, research fndings from across locations and over the years [18,36] revealed that the studied faba bean varieties had signifcant variations in faba bean gall disease severity.…”

“…Te study by Wondwosen et al [36] reported the highest (4.4 t•ha −1 ) yield from the Gora variety in North Shewa, Ethiopia. In other studies, Gora was also reported as the highest-yielding variety among other tested varieties [34,35]. In the present study, the highest number of branches per plant, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, and 100-seed weight measured from the variety Gora were important traits to indicate the genetic potential of Gora in providing high yield.…”

“…Te pooled analysis revealed highly signifcant ((P < 0.01) diferences among varieties, years (except hundred-seed weight), and the interaction of varieties with years in yield and yield components of faba bean varieties for all assessed traits (S1 Table ). In the other study, there was a signifcant diference among the tested faba bean varieties across seasons [31][32][33][34].…”

Determinants of adoption and intensity of improved faba bean cultivars in the central highlands of Ethiopia: a double-hurdle approach

“…After grain yield, biomass yield is the most critical parameter for farmers when selecting varieties. Previous research has shown that improved faba bean varieties outperform local landraces in terms of biomass yield (see for example Kassa et al 2020). A higher degree of diversification i.e., an average crop-livestock diversification index of 0.57 was observed in the area (Mekuria and Mekonnen 2018).…”

Conventional and Molecular Breeding Tools for Accelerating Genetic Gain in Faba Bean (Vicia Faba L.)

“…It is not caused by Olpidium viciae Kusano as suggested earlier. Recent findings in Ethiopia indicate the availability of partial resistance in existing faba bean germplasm (Yitayih and Azmeraw, 2017;Wondwosen et al, 2019;Kassa et al, 2020). Molecular based research such as identifying quantitative trait loci (QTL) for host plant resistance has not yet been undertaken for faba bean gall.…”