Participatory Demonstration and Evaluation of Optimum Fungicide Spray Frequency and Timing for Rust Management on Bread Wheat Production in West Arsi and Bale Zones, Southeastern Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was carried out in West Arsi and Bale Zones of Oromia National Regional State Southeastern Ethiopia. To execute the trial, Dodola and Adaba districts were selected from West Arsi Zone while Agarfa and Sinana districts were considered from Bale Zone in which a total of 14 trial farmers were employed. The trial has three plots viz. research managed plot, farmers managed plot and the control plot. Similar agronomic recommendations were applied for all plots. Different frequency and timing of fungicide spray were applied using susceptible variety of bread wheat namely Ogolcho as a test crop. The trial was carried out using FRG approach. Data such as date of first spray, interval of spray, frequency of spray, production costs, and number of stakeholders participated during training and field days were recorded. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. Awareness creation was carried out in which 134 and 165 stake holders were participated on training and mini field days, respectively. The result of descriptive statistics revealed that average frequency of research managed plot was 2.29 while that of farmers’ managed plot was 3.86. Similarly, the mean time of first spray after the date of planting for research managed plot was started on 35.57 days and 42.57 days attributed for mean time of first spray for farmers’ managed plot. The ANOVA test depicted that research managed plot gave relatively high yield of 43.35 qt/ha followed by farmers managed plot which gave 30.84 qt/ha. The yield difference is statistically significant at less than 5% level of significance. The profitability analysis indicated that farmer who sprays two times keeping the right time could get extra net benefit of 42,269.00 ETB than who frequently spray without keeping the recommendations. Based on the finding, two times spray is effective applying the recommendations properly.

Key Words: Awareness Creation, Bread wheat, Frequency, FRG Approach, Fungicide, Timing

DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/95-01

Publication date: January 31^st 2025