Valuation of Proceed PlusTMMD and Verification of CelestTop312.5FS Fungicides for the Control of Loose Smut of Wheat in Southeastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Wheat is considered one of the utmost grown agricultural grain crops in the world to meet the food requirements of the domain’s population. In Ethiopia, wheat is one of key cereal crops whose area of cultivation and volume of produced boosted year after year. However, the production and productivity of wheat is truncated by various biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the biotic stresses, wheat loose smut disease caused by Ustilago tritici is one of quality and quantity incurring diseases but getting lower research attention. A field experiment was conducted with the objective to evaluate and verify the efficacy of fungicides against wheat loose smut diseases and put updated recommendation for users. It was executed at three loose smut hot spot locations, Meraro on-station, Kulumsa main center and Wonjigora on farm in 2023 main cropping season. Two different fungicides including the test fungicide (CelestTop312.5FS) and standard check (Proceed PlusTMMD), as well as untreated plot were used as a treatment. The trial was laid out in non-replicated plots at three sites where locations were considered as replica. The result of the research finding revealed that fungicide treated treatments significantly reduced loose smut diseases severity to the lowest level possible over the nil application. However, there was no statistically significant difference (p ≤ 5%) between the test and check fungicides in reducing loose smut diseases severity. Test fungicide revealed comparable level of efficacy on loose smut diseases severity reduction compared to the standard check. There was highly significant difference (p ≤ 5%) hectoliter weight between fungicide treatments and nil application of fungicide but insignificant variation in grain yield and thousand seed weight. Both fungicide treatments also revealed significant diseases management advantage than untreated plots. Thus, the newly verified fungicide CelestTop312.5 FS at a rate of 200ml fungicide with 1 to 2 liters of water as wetting agent for 100 Kg of wheat seed is found to be very effective in controlling loose smut diseases and is recommended for registration. Similarly, proceed PlusTM MD at a rate of  0.004 liter fungicide per kilogram of seed is suggested for further use for producers to control wheat loose smut diseases as sole or integrated disease management options.