Abstract

Ginger (ZingiberofficinaleRosc.) is an important spice crop grown in tropical and subtropical countries including Ethiopia. It is produced both for commercial and home use. In Ethiopia, more than 70 percent of the total ginger production is contributed from SNNPR especially Boloso-Bombe district of Wolaita and Hadaro-Tunto district of Kambata-Tambaro Zones. But, since 2012 the first ginger wilt disease epidemic was reported and ginger disease is becoming the threat of national ginger production as a whole. Therefore, the study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of fungicides for management of phylostica leaf spot disease of ginger. Five fungicides (Matco, Mancozeb, Redomil, Bordeaux mixture, dipping with Trust symoccop and Untreated) were evaluated for their efficiency to manage Phylostica leaf spot disease on one ginger variety (Boziab). The treatments were planted at Bombe and Areka using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications with factorial arrangement in 2017. The response of treatments to ginger Phylostica leaf spot disease under natural infestation in terms of incidence and severity was recorded and the data was analyzed using SAS software (version 9.1) .The result depicted that, number of finger per hill, average palm length, fresh weight of three hills and fresh weight of ginger per plot has no significant difference among fungicide sprayed treatments at Areka; however there was relatively significant difference of these parameters at Bombe on some Redomil and Matco sprayed treatments. However, there is quantitative variation among treatments, the result of disease severity showed statistically non-significant. Therefore, the alternative use of fungicides of Redomil and Matco can minimize ginger phylostica leaf spot disease and rhizome yield loss due to the disease.