Assessments on Re-emerging Infections Plant Diseases: Treating on Coffee Industry in Horizon Plantation

Abstract

Background: Coffee (Coffee arabica L.)  Coffee accounts thirty three percent of Ethiopia’s total export earnings and sustains the livelihoods of more than one million coffees growing households. Besides its importance coffee production treated with number biotic factors of which diseases are major.Coffee is prone to a number of diseases that attack fruits, leaves, stems and roots, and reduce yield and spent of additional management costs. Major coffee diseases in Ethiopia are Coffee berry diseases (Colletotrichum kahawae), Coffee wilt disease (Gibberella xylarioides) and coffee leaf rust (Himalia vestatrix) however, the rest diseases including thread blight considered minor.However, the prevalence and economic importance of reemerging coffee diseases in Limmu coffee plantation industry is a challenge and not sufficiently studied. Objective: The aim of this paper were assessed the re-emerging infections of coffee diseases leaf rust and thread blight to determine the intensity of the disease and their effects.  Materials and Methods The research conducted in Gomma-1 coffee farm for leave rust assessments and Suntu coffee farm for thread blight disease (black rot). The sampling method for selecting locations and farm were selected using purposive sampling method and a predetermined criterion, where distance between the blokes, five coffee tree were random sampled with in a plot. Results: The survey result showed that,mean disease incidence and severity coffee leave rust at Gomma-1 41.1% and 11.5% respectively. Thread blight mean disease incidence 31.8%, range (15% - 52%). The data showed that estimated loss due to thread blight reach 4% from annual coffee production at Suntu coffee farm or ($101,791) revenue. Conclusion: These epidemics should be considered as a warning for the future, as they were enhanced by weather conditions consistent with climate change. Appropriate actions need to be taken in the near future to address this issue including: the development and establishment of resistant coffee cultivars; the creation of early warning systems; the design of crop management systems adapted to climate change.

Keywords: Climate change, Coffee leaf rust, Disease intercity, Thread blight

DOI: 10.7176/FSQM/123-04

Publication date: January 31^st 2024