Assessment and Evaluation of Enset Landraces to Bacterial Wilt (Xanthamonas campestris pv. musacearum) disease of enset at Gedio Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Enset is an important food crop produced in Ethiopia with a great role in food security especially for millions of people living in the southern and southwestern parts of the country. However, its production has been threatened by a devastating bacterial disease caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum. Field surveys in Gedio Zone and a pot experiment at Dilla University were conducted during the 2018/2019 cropping season. A total of 90 enset farms were observed at about 5 km apart. Observations of disease symptoms on farms were performed using a simple random sampling technique in a diagonal fashion within a sampling area of 10 m × 10 m. Numbers of infected and disease-free enset plants in each sample were recorded. The results showed that 65% of enset farms were infected with the disease, with a mean incidence of 34.96%. Twenty Enset landraces collected from Gedeo zone were evaluated for their reaction to Enset bacterial wilt through artificial inoculation. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Design with twenty treatments assigned to experimental units in three replications. Except Maziya, all enset landraces showed wilt symptoms but at varying levels of the disease incidence during the first 35 days after inoculation. Maziya was a resistant enset landrace while Ganticho, Torame, Filila, Ado, Werabesa, Mindame, and Gakira were moderately resistant. Therefore, the resistant and tolerant landraces should be multiplied, demonstrated, and incorporated into farming practices. However, these should be further evaluated for a large number of Xcm isolates under both pot experiments and field conditions.