Efficacy evaluation of different foliar fungicides for the management of wheat strip rust ( Puccinia striiformis) in West Shoa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Rust is one of the most widespread and devastating disease of cereal crop all over the world. This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of different fungicide against strip rust of wheat (Puccinia striiformis) at Toke Kutaye District, West Showa Zone of Oromia region, Ethiopia. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in three replications and contains five treatments. Disease parameters like incidence, severity, Area under Disease Progress curve (AUDPC), and yield loss (dry biomass, grain yield, and thousands grain weight) were used to evaluate the treatments. The fungicides showed significant differences (P<0.05) in reducing incidence, severity, AUDPC and yield losses compared to the control treatment. There also significant differences between Zantara EC 216 and Rex®Duo fungicide in reducing disease incidence and also between Zantara EC 216 and Tilt 250 EC in reducing the disease severity. Zantara EC 216 fungicide reduced strip rust severity by 94.2% compared to the control treatment. The analysis of variance also revealed significant difference among Zantara EC 216 and Rex®Duo, Tilt 250 EC and Progress fungicides in reducing grain yield loss and thousand grain weights loss. Zantara EC 216 fungicide increased grain yield by 32.2% compared to the control. However, for the most parameters, there was no significant difference among Rex®Duo, Tilt 250 EC and Progress fungicides. Hence, Zantara EC 216 which is newly introduced to Ethiopian country was very effective and can be recommended as alternative fungicide for the management of strip rust of wheat in west showa zone of Ethiopia and areas of similar agro-ecological conditions.Keywords: Fungicides efficacy, Wheat, Severity, Zantara EC 216