Effect of Septoria Leaf Blotch on Wheat – Abstract

Journal of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences (JEAS). Alamirew et al., 2020. Volume 22(1): 41-48

Open Access – Research Article

Effect of Septoria Leaf Blotch (Mycosphaerella graminicola) on Yield and Yield Components of Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Western Amhara, Ethiopia

Belayneh Alamirew 1,*, Merkuz Abera 2, Ayele Badebo 3
1 Adet Agricultural Research Center, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
2 Bahir Dar University, College of Agriculture and Environmental science, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia
3 International Maize and Wheat Improving Center, CIMMYT, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia


Abstract: Septoria leaf blotch (SLB) (Mycosphaerella graminicola), is considered as the most economically important disease of wheat worldwide. A field experiment was carried out at Debre Tabor in 2017/2018 main cropping season to determine the effect of SLB on yield and yield components of bread wheat. Factorial combination of three varieties viz., Alidoro (Moderately resistant) Danda’a (Moderately susceptible) and Gambo (Susceptible) and four levels of fungicide spray frequencies (Control, one time, two times and three times) were tested in RCBD. Analysis of variance for grain yield showed significant variation among different fungicide spray frequencies (P<0.05). Significant differences (P<0.05) also have been observed in the yield components. The highest yield loss 46.42%, 39.09% and 26% was recorded on the unsprayed plots of Gambo, Danda’a and Alidoro, respectively. Similarly, at this location three frequencies (3 times, 2 times and 1 times and control) of fungicide applications increased yield by 37.64%, 23.29% and 11.05% over unsprayed, respectively. The overall loss in grain yield of Gambo, susceptible variety was the highest compared with the other two varieties. Correlation analysis showed that, septoria leaf blotch severity with yield and most agronomic parameters on both all and flag leaves of all varieties were negatively correlated. Therefore, this study revealed that fungicide application will minimize the loss incurred by the pathogen; however the effect of this pathogen on quality of bread wheat should also be studied further.
Keywords: Fungicide, resistance, septoria leaf blotch, spray frequency, yield loss.

*Corresponding author: Belayneh Alamirew: belayneh441@gmail.com 


Cite this article as:
Alamirew, B., M. Abera and A. Badebo. 2020. Effect of Septoria leaf blotch (Mycosphaerella graminicola) on yield and yield components of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in Western Amhara, Ethiopia. Journal of Environmental and Agricultural Sciences. 22(1): 41-48.
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Copyright © Alamirew et al., 2020. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original author and source are appropriately cited and credited.


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