Bacterial wilt(Ralstonia solanacearum ) Ginger(Zingiber officinalae small holder farms, in KambataTembaro Zone, Kacha bira woreda ARBA MINCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES DEPARTEMENT OF BIOLOGY Ralstonia solanacearum ) disease incidence of officinalae Roscoe) and its socio-economic impact in small holder farms, in KambataTembaro Zone, Kacha bira woreda

Abstract

Ginger bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is a notable impediment of production of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) in ginger growing area. It a common disease that affects the ginger crop through all phases of its production cycle. Hence, the study was aimed to assess the Socio-economic impact of ginger bacterial wilt on farmers’ livelihood in KambataTembaro Zone, Kachbira woreda. Among 21 kebeles in the woreda, three kebeles were purposively selected based on ginger production capacity. A total of 102 households from the aforementioned kebeles were randomly selected to assess the socio-economic impact of the disease on the livelihood of the farmers. Two common varieties of ginger namely Volvo (introduced) and Hargama (local) were selected for further field experiment. The socio-economic data showed that 87.3 % of the farmers found to face food insecurity and 100% of the farmers feared that their household income is affected. Only 1% of the farmers found to use modern management practices to control the impact of the disease and the rest use either traditional or integrated approaches. The field experiment result also revealed that the prevalence of bacterial wilt in both Hargama and Volvo control group were 25 and 19.44% respectively. And from externally infected experimental group of Hargema and Volvo 69.4 and 63.9% of ginger plant affected by the disease respectively. This further confirmed that ginger bacterial wilt affects both varieties and has significant effect on yield. The yield of ginger at the end of the experiment measured and found to be 0.91 (X 2 =0.38) and 0.75 (X 2 =3.42) for Volvo and Hargama respectively.In conclusion the disease affect the plant, ginger growing farmers, and agricultural sector significantly in the study area.