Abstract
Bread Wheat is one of Ethiopia’s most important cereal crops in terms of area allocated, volume produced and the number of farmers engaged in its production. However, its production and productivity is curtailed by biotic and abiotic factors. Among biotic factors, wheat yellow rust caused by Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici is the most important disease. Field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of environment on wheat varieties’ yellow rust resistance and yield performance at three locations, Sinana, Agarfa and Ginir in Bale in 2012 main cropping season. Six bread wheat varieties having different level of resistance to yellow rust were used in the experiment. Plots were arranged in randomized complete block design in three replication. Environment had a significant effect on epidemic development of yellow rust through its effect on growth and progress rate of the pathogen. The test locations were different in their weather variables and created significant difference (p≤ 0.05) in yellow rust severity among the varieties. Due to weather variables across locations, the same variety responded differently to yellow rust severities at different locations. Environment had varying effect on yield and yield related traits. The tested bread wheat varieties had significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) for all yield-related traits at all locations. There was inconsistent behavior of the varieties across locations for yield and yield components. Variation in the environmental factors affected wheat varieties’ yellow rust resistance and yield performance. The varieties responded differently in their resistance to yellow rust and yield performance when exposed to different environments varying in minimum and maximum temperature regimes and rainfall status.
Highlights
Wheat is one of Ethiopia’s most important cereal crops in terms of the area allocated, volume produced and the number of farmers engaged in its production
Sinana Agricultural Research Center (SARC) and Agarfa are located in cool, sub-humid agro climatic zone, while Ginir is in the midlands of Bale, southeastern Oromia regional state of Ethiopia
The present study indicated that yellow rust epidemic development on all leaves, flag leaves and F-1 leaves was different for diverse varieties at all environments
Summary
Wheat is one of Ethiopia’s most important cereal crops in terms of the area allocated, volume produced and the number of farmers engaged in its production. About 4.7 million farmers produce 3.9 million tons of wheat across 1.6 million hectares of land with average productivity of 2.45 ton/ha (CSA, 2014). In 2013/14 cropping season, with a share of 15.6% and 18.1%, wheat ranked third in total volume of production of grain crops and cereals respectively next to maize and tef. Ethiopia is the most important wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa. In the period of 2009-2011, the country ranked first both in area and production of wheat in sub-Saharan Africa with a share of 55% and 47.8%, respectively (Negassa et al, 2013), showing a potential to become a regional exporter. Wheat contributes an estimated 12% to the daily per capital calorie intake, making it the third most important contributor to national calorie intake, after maize and sorghum (Guush et al, 2011)
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