Evaluation of Chickpea Varieties and Fungicides for the Management of Chickpea Fusarium Wilt Disease (Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceris) at Adet Sick Plot in Northwest Ethiopia

A 2-year experiment was conducted at wilt sick plot infested with natural occurring Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. ciceris at Adet Agricultural Research Center in northwestern Ethiopia with an aim to evaluate effective chickpea varieties and fungicides for the management of chickpea fusarium wilt in order to integrate chickpea varieties and fungicides. Four varieties, namely, Shasho, Arerti, Marye, and local, two fungicides, namely, Apron Star and mancozeb, and untreated local chickpea were used as treatments. Treatments were arranged in a factorial combination in randomized complete block design in three replications. There were significant differences at in the overall mean of fusarium wilt disease incidence, area under disease progress curve %-day, yield and yield components among varieties and fungicides treatments. Data were analyzed using SAS system version 9.2. The results indicated that the maximum disease incidence and area under disease progress curve values 65.62% and 578.5%-day, respectively, were recorded from untreated local chickpea, while the minimum disease incidence and area under disease progress curve values 23.41% and 147%-day, respectively, were recorded from Shasho variety treated with Apron Star. The maximum biomass and grain yield of 6.71 t/ha and 4.6 t/ha, respectively, were recorded from Shasho variety treated with Apron Star while the minimum biomass and grain yield of 0.62 t/ha and 0.21 t/ha, respectively, were recorded from untreated local chickpea. Thus, the experiment results suggested that the variety of Shasho treated with fungicide Apron Star caused significant reduction in chickpea fusarium wilt incidence leading to a corresponding increase in grain yield of chickpea.