A Coming threatening disease for coffee production in southern Ethiopia: A case of coffee leaf spot disease

Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) is an important crop in the Ethiopia's economy. However, among the main limiting factors, diseases are the major one that affects production of coffee in the country. In addition to major coffee diseases, coffee leaf spot (CLS) disease was become threatening coffee production in southern Ethiopia. Thus, survey was done to assess the current status and identify the real causal agent of the disease in the study areas. Disease prevalence, incidence and severity were recorded and analyzed. Present result showed that the real causal agent of the pathogen was identified and confirmed as Cercospora coffeicola. A total of ninety coffee farms from six districts were assessed and out of these, 72 (79.7%) were with disease, while the remaining 18 (20.3%) were disease free. The magnitude of the disease incidence and severity significantly varied among the study areas. The highest disease incidence (90.0%) and severity (36.8%) was recorded from Wonago, while the lowest (34.0 and 5.4%) was from Yirga Cheffe districts. The present report revealed that the main cause of the problems was CLS in addition to major coffee diseases in the study areas. Therefore, high attention should be needed in the future research works.