Phenotyping of Lentil Germplasm for Ascochyta Blight Resistance in Ethiopia

Abstract

Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus) is the most important food legume crop in the cereal-based cropping system. Ascochyta blight (Didymella lentis) is an emerging foliar disease affecting both quality and quantity of lentil crops. Many of the released lentil varieties from exotic sources are susceptible for Ascochyta blight. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify sources of resistance to Ascochyta blight. A total of 256 germplasm from EBI, ICARDA and EIAR Were evaluated under natural disease development at Alem Tena research site which is hot spot for Ascochyta blight in 2023/24 main cropping season. The experimental design was simple alpha lattice and Ascochyta blight disease reaction was measured using 1-9 rating scale where 1= highly resistant and 9= highly susceptible. The analysis result revealed that there were wide ranges of variation in resistance to the disease. A total of 57 germplasm were observed resistant; 120 moderately resistant and the rest were susceptible to the disease. Ascochyta blight disease reaction was negatively highly correlated with flowering date (r= -0.248**, p< 0.0001) where early maturing and late maturing germplasm were susceptible and resistant respectively. Sources of resistance to Ascochyta blight is existing in the local germplasm that can be used to develop varieties directly or through crossing and reduce the negative impacts of the disease in Ethiopia.