Abstract
An evaluation of resistances of thirty Arabica coffee genotypes for coffee berry disease (CBD) and coffee leaf rust (CLR) infections were carried out across different locations in south-western Ethiopia. The genotypes were first screened against the diseases at Gera which is high land. Eighteen out of thirty genotypes were found to be highly resistant to CBD. However, the earlier screening against CLR at Gera did not favor selection of genotypes which exhibited high resistance levels to it except 75187B, 8136, 8143 and 7803B showing high land is not an optimum environment to discriminate among genotypes for rust resistances. The resistances of these genotypes for rust at multi-locations with different races of rust indicate that they are resistant at least to the two prevalently localized races of II and III in south-western Ethiopia. The identification of Arabica coffee types resistant to coffee leaf rust at multi- locations shows the possibility of improving genotypes for CLR resistances. Genotype 75187B and 8143 apart from exhibiting multiple resistances for coffee berry disease and coffee leaf rust; they also exhibited high performance for yield at the stated locations. This indicates that it is possible to improve the indigenous Arabica coffee types in Ethiopia for multiple traits simultaneously.
Highlights
Arabica coffee is an important crop in the national economy of Ethiopia
Despite Arabica coffee is important to the national economy and in spite of the fact that the country is home of Arabica coffee, the coffee industry is threatened of low level of productivity and poor quality associated to diseases mainly coffee berry disease (CBD), coffee wilt disease (CWD) and coffee leaf rust (CLR).CBD is an anthracnose of green coffee berries caused by the fungus Colletotrichum kahawae Waller (Sy.) Colletotrichum coffeanum (Noak) has been the most serious disease that poses considerable losses on arabica coffee in Ethiopia and East Africa (Vander, 1981; Vander, 1997; Eshetu, 1997)
There was higher crop load at the first than the second year (Fig1, 2). This was partly one reason for the moderately high disease occurrence observed in the former than the latter as high yield is a favorable condition for disease development. This is in agreement with the work of Vander (1987) who stated that CBD infection is aggravated in seasons which have heavy crops than light
Summary
Arabica coffee is an important crop in the national economy of Ethiopia. Twenty five percent of the people in the country one way or the other earn their livelihood from coffee. Despite Arabica coffee is important to the national economy and in spite of the fact that the country is home of Arabica coffee, the coffee industry is threatened of low level of productivity and poor quality associated to diseases mainly coffee berry disease (CBD), coffee wilt disease (CWD) and coffee leaf rust (CLR).CBD is an anthracnose of green coffee berries caused by the fungus Colletotrichum kahawae Waller (Sy.) Colletotrichum coffeanum (Noak) has been the most serious disease that poses considerable losses on arabica coffee in Ethiopia and East Africa (Vander, 1981; Vander, 1997; Eshetu, 1997). The objective of this study was designed to evaluate the indigenous Arabica coffee genotypes for coffee berry disease and leaf rust resistances across different environments and identify resistant types for commercial purposes
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