Assessments of Distribution and Status of Major Disease of Hot Pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i> L.) in West Shoa and East Wollega Zones, Ethiopia

Abstract

Hot pepper crop is native to Latin America and belongs to the family Solanceae. The exact time for the introduction of pepper to Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular is not known. In Ethiopia hot pepper (<i>Capsicum annuum</i>) is an economically and traditionally vital crop, and for most Ethiopians food is tasteless without hot pepper. Despite the importance of hot pepper in Ethiopia, total crop failure due to diseases has been common and sometimes farmers are forced to abandon their production due to excessive disease pressure in the field. This activity was initiated to determine the relative occurrence, distribution and status of hot pepper disease across study area. The disease Survey was conducted to assess the prevalence, incidence and severity of major disease of Hot pepper. The survey was conducted in 32 Kebeles and 46 farms in the four Districts of the two Zones. Kebele were randomly selected from each District and based on the representativeness of hot peppet production of the area. The disease survey was done along the two diagonals (in an “X” fashion) of the field from five points using 1m x 1m (1 m²) quadrates. The assessment was done for disease prevalence, incidence and severity hot pepper. The data collected from the survey was checked completeness and analyzed using SPSS software used to summarized. Six diseases of hot pepper, Fusarium wilt, Cercospra leaf spot, Bacterial leaf spot, Bacteria soft rot, and Anthracnose diseases were assessed in the farms field. The importance of each disease was determined by calculating the prevalance, incidence and severity values. The incidence of individual disease of hot pepper fusarium, cercospora leaf spot, Bacterial leaf spot and anthracnose highest scored 65%, 90.31%, 76.33% and 39.5 while the severit value 65%, 43.65%, 32% and 24 respectively. Thus, when developing a hot pepper disease control strategy in the future, different disease management options required.