Abstract

Fusarium head blight, or head scab is a destructive disease of wheat, maize and other small grain cereals. It is predominantly incited by Fusarium graminearum worldwide. In Ethiopia, the disease becoming an important biotic constraint for wheat production and this study was aimed to determine the reaction of some released Ethiopian wheat varieties to the disease. A total of 38 Ethiopian wheat varieties (30 bread and 8 durum types) were screened for the disease resistance at Ambo Agricultural Research Center during the 2019/2020 season. The varieties were artificially sprayed twice (at 50 and 100% flowering stage) using hand sprayer with F. graminearum inoculum isolated from infected grains of wheat. The result showed that 31(81.6%) tested varieties exhibited susceptible reaction, while only 7 (18.4%) varieties, namely Enkoy, Huluka, Galema, Hogana, K6295-4A, Dashen and Derselegne showed moderately tolerant reaction to the disease. The disease is known to cause yield losses as high as 58.20% on susceptible wheat variety (Ogolchu) assessed in this study. Hence, the study concludes that the disease pose threat to wheat production and most of wheat varieties currently under production in the country were among the susceptible varieties. Therefore, breeders should focus on the improvement of the crop through developing multiple and race non-specific resistance varieties to the disease. Massive screening of introduced and locally available wheat genotypes including those evaluated in this study over years and locations is also needed. The identified moderately tolerant varieties by this study should be used with proper agronomic practices and other possible disease management options.