English

Abstract

Gray leaf spot is one of the major constraints of maize production in Ethiopia where warm humid environmental condition is prevailing. A field experiment was conducted in Gondar zuria district of western Ethiopia during 2016/17 and 2017/18 cropping season with the aim to evaluate effective maize varieties for the management of maize gray leaf spot disease. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in three replications. Nine improved varieties, that is, SBRH, Gibie 2, Gibie 3, Argene, Jibat, BH-546, SPRH, Wonji, AMR-852 with one local maize were tested for GLS resistance. The genotype significantly varied and there were significant differences (P<0.05) in the overall mean of GLS incidence, severity, AUDPC%/day, yield and yield component among varieties. Data were analyzed using SAS version 9.2. The result indicated that the maximum disease incidence and area under disease progress curve (AUDPC), 58.8 and 214.83% per day respectively were recorded from local maize while the minimum incidence and AUDPC value, 22.7 and 150.49% per day, respectively were recorded from Gibie 2 maize variety. The maximum grain yield of 8611.7 kg/ha was recorded from Gibie 2 variety while the minimum grain yield of 4542.3 kg/ha was recorded from local maize. The study suggested that variety of Gibie 2 showed minimum grain yield loss which result to negligible loss of 1.47%, respectively and showed significant reduction of maize GLS incidence, with a corresponding increased grain yield of maize. Key words: Cercospora zeae maydis, Maize varieties, area under disease progress curve (AUDPC), disease incidence, disease progress rate.