Abstract

The production of wheat is subjected to diverse biotic and abiotic threats. Out of them, diseases are one of the important factors that limit the productivity of wheat. Fusarium head blight (FHB) or scab is one wheat disease caused by fungal pathogen of more than seventeen fusarium spp. up to seventeen fusarium species were identified from scabby wheat heads in the field and suggested as they have the potential to be the major threat for wheat production in the country. Therefore, the study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of variety by fungicidefor management of fusarium head blight disease of wheat. Three Fungicides (Tilt, Rexdo and Bylaton) were evaluated for their efficiency to manage wheat fusarium head blight (FHB) on three wheat varieties (Digalu, Galama and Danda’a) with different resistance level for FHB. The treatments were planted at Kokate and Hosanna using randomized complete block design (RCBD) in three replications with factorial arrangement in 2016 and 2017. The response of wheat varieties to fusarium head blight disease under natural infestation was recorded in terms of disease incidence and severity and analyzed using SAS version 9.1. The result depicted that, Due to the sporadic nature of the FHB it was occurred only in 2016, with low intensity and the data is not enough to indicate the treatment effect. However, there is quantitative variation among treatments, the result of disease severity showed statistically non-significant. Therefore, the alternative use of fungicides of Tilt, Rex Due and Bylathon can minimize wheat yield loss due to fusarium head blight