Abstract
Common bacterial blight, caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. phaseoli, is an economically important disease of common bean and causes significant yield losses in Ethiopia. A field survey was conducted to understand the spatial distribution, relative importance and association of common bacterial blight epidemics with agro-ecological factors in low and mid-land areas of Southwestern, Ethiopia, during the 2018-19 cropping season. A total 85 bean fields were assessed in four common bean growing districts. High diseases incidence and severity was recorded at Debub Ari (77.6 and 52.7%, respectively) while the lowest was from Male (38.5 and 28.0%, respectively). The associations between disease parameters and agro-ecological factors were analyzed using multiple logistic regression models. Agronomic practices including NPS fertilization, preceding crop, weed management and plant population had highly significant (P<0.0001) association with both disease incidence and severity. Also, altitude, seed source and cropping system significantly (P<0.05) influenced disease severity while cropping pattern showed significant (P<0.05) association with disease incidence in the reduced model. Higher mean disease severity (≥40%) had high probability of association with district, absence of NPS fertilization, poor weed management practice, and preceding crops, than their counter parts. Adequate NPS fertilization increases growth performance of the crop in turn decreases disease intensity, weed serve as alternate host for incoming inoculum and previous crops were source for inocula as well as crop rotation used as reduce inoculum load. Therefore, the present study showed that the disease is a major production constraint of common bean, and suggested proper nutrient and weed management practices, and crop rotation to reduce common bacterial blight in the study areas.
 Int. J. Agril. Res. Innov. Tech. 11(1): 74-83, June 2021
Highlights
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the world’s second most important pulse after soybean (Parades et al, 2009) and constitutes a significant part of human diet in Ethiopia (EPPA, 2004)
The crop has been cultivated as main food crop in Southern and Eastern parts of Ethiopia, where it is widely intercropped with maize and sorghum to improve farmers’ income (Fininsa, 2003)
From a total of 85 inspected fields, about 94.11% were infested by Common Bacterial Blight (CBB) while only 5.88% bean fields were disease free
Summary
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is the world’s second most important pulse after soybean (Parades et al, 2009) and constitutes a significant part of human diet in Ethiopia (EPPA, 2004). Production of the crop is indispensable in the country to enrich the stable cereal crop with sufficient and quality protein in order to overcome the problem of malnutrition (Tadesse et al, 2009). It is cultivated in a wide range of agro-ecologies and farming systems including well-watered and drought-stressed areas (Asrat et al, 2009). Common beans were covering on 0.29 million ha of area and the production obtained was 0.48 million tons of the grain production It covered 98.32 thousand ha of land with productivity of 1.62 t ha-1 of grain yield in Southern Ethiopia (CSA, 2018). Low productivity is attributed to both abiotic and biotic constraints such as soil fertility status, recurrent water stress, insect pests and diseases, which are considered as the principal factors in Africa (Katungi et al, 2010; Belete and Bastas, 2017)
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