Abstract

Faba bean is multi-purpose crop that plays an important role in the socioeconomic life of farming communities. Chocolate spot disease, caused by Botrytis fabae is one of the yields limiting factor of this crop resulting in yield losses up to 68% in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the prevalence of chocolate spot (Botrytis fabae) of faba bean (Vicia faba) and to manage chocolate spot (Botrytis fabae) disease through host resistance and fungicide spray frequencies in Dabat district during the 2022/2023 cropping season. For the field experiment, the treatments were three faba bean varieties (Local, Walki and Hachalu) with four fungicide spraying frequency including: (Unsprayed, 1 times spray, 2 times spray and 3 times spray) of Trust Cymocop 439.5% WP at 1.5 kg/ha. It was arranged in randomized complete block design in 3 × 4 factorial combinations with three replications. The disease, yield and yield related data were subjected to analysis of variance using the general linear model procedure of SAS 9.4. The field experiment results revealed that, the interaction of variety with fungicide spraying frequency had significant effect on chocolate spot disease management. The minimum disease severity (25.33%) recorded from Wolki with three times spraying frequency while the maximum disease severity (52.33 %) was recorded from unsprayed local variety at the last day of assessment. The highest AUDPC (11408% unit day) was recorded from unsprayed local variety while the lowest AUDPC (573% unit day) was recorded from Walki variety with 3 times fungicide spraying frequency Trust Cymocop 439.5% WP. In this study Walki faba bean variety with fungicide treatment particularly with 3 times fungicide spraying frequency Trust Cymocop 439.5% WP had provided best result in terms of chocolate spot disease management and get benefit from yield production. Since the research was conducted for one year the experiment should be repeated.

Keywords: AUDPC, Chocolate spot, Disease assessment, Faba bean, Incidence