Abstract
Maize (Zea mays) is one of the most widely cultivated crops in the world. In Ethiopia, it’s a major staple food with an average productivity of 3.94 t ha -1 , which is below the world average of 5.78 tones ha -1 . A significant portion of this yield gap is attributed to biotic and abiotic stresses. Of diseases, grey leaf spot is one of the major foliar diseases threatening maize production in Ethiopia. Loss caused due to grey leaf spot reached 49.5% in Ethiopia. The objective was to assess the distribution and importance of Grey Leaf Spot. The assessments were done by sampling 81 maize fields in 9 districts from 3 zones during 2017. Purposive multistage sampling method was used. Data were analyzed using three-stage nested design. The survey result showed the highest disease prevalence 62.96 % was recorded in East Wollega and the lowest (22.22%) in West-Wollega zone. The highest mean incidence 35.06 % was recorded in East Wollega whilst the lowest 9.51% in West-Shewa. The maximum Severity index of 31.43% was in East Wollega whereas the minimum in West-Wollega (10.05%) zones. At a district level, the highest prevalence was recorded in Leka-Dulecha followed by Gobu-Seyo with disease prevalence of 88.9% and 66.7%, respectively. The highest mean incidence 48.15% was at Gobu-Seyo whereas the lowest was recorded in Gimbi 1.1%. The highest mean severity index was in Leka-Dulecha 46.11% whilst the lowest in Gimbi 1.78%. Thus, there is a need to develop management strategies like crop rotation with non-host, use of tolerant varieties to reduce the impact of the disease on maize production. Keywords: Maize disease, Incidence, Severity Index DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/11-17-03 Publication date: September 30 th 2020
Highlights
Maize (Zea mays) is one of the most widely cultivated crops in the world
Grey Leaf spot of maize was observed with an incidence ranging from 0–76.67% in West-Shewa zone, 0–80% in East Wollega zone, and 0–70% in West-Wollega zone
The highest mean incidence of Grey leaf spot disease was recorded in East Wollega zone (35.06 %) followed by West-Shewa zone (12.09%)
Summary
Maize (Zea mays) is one of the most widely cultivated crops in the world. It is one of the three most popular cereal crops next to wheat, and rice in the world (FAOSTAT, 2016). Maize occupies an important position in world economy as a food, feed and an industrial grain crop (Tolesaet al., 1993). It serves as a vital source of proteins, calories and some of the important vitamins and minerals to billions of people worldwide, in Africa, South America and Asia, and has been considered a ‘poor man’s nutricereal’ (Prasanna et al 2001). In East Africa, maize occupies about 17 million of production area and 30.4 million tons of total production and with 1.8 tons per ha (FAOSTAT, 2016)
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