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 Gora variety with three times sprays of Noble 25 WP. The results of this study suggested that the proper application of fungicides combined with improved varieties is important for the economic management of faba bean gall disease.