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Smallholders' coping mechanisms with wheat rust epidemics: Lessons from Ethiopia.

ABSTRACT: Crops are variously susceptible to biotic stresses-something expected to increase under climate change. In the case of staple crops, this potentially undermines household and national food security. We examine recent wheat rust epidemics and smallholders' coping mechanisms in Ethiopia as a case study. Wheat is a major food crop in Ethiopia widely grown by smallholders. In 2010/11 a yellow rust epidemic affected over one-third of the national wheat area. Two waves of nationally representative household level panel data collected for the preceding wheat season (2009/10) and three years after (2013/14) the occurrence of the epidemic allow us to analyze the different coping mechanisms farmers used in response. Apart from using fungicides as ex-post coping mechanism, increasing wheat area under yellow rust resistant varieties, increasing diversity of wheat varieties grown, or a combination of these strategies were the main ex-ante coping mechanisms farmers had taken in reducing the potential effects of rust re-occurrence. Large-scale dis-adoption of highly susceptible varieties and replacement with new, rust resistant varieties was observed subsequent to the 2010/11 epidemic. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to identify the key factors associated with smallholder ex-ante coping strategies. Household characteristics, level of specialization in wheat and access to improved wheat seed were the major factors that explained observed choices. There was 29-41% yield advantage in increasing wheat area to the new, resistant varieties even under normal seasons with minimum rust occurrence in the field. Continuous varietal development in responding to emerging new rust races and supporting the deployment of newly released resistant varieties could help smallholders in dealing with rust challenges and maintaining improved yields in the rust-prone environments of Ethiopia. Given the global importance of both wheat and yellow rust and climate change dynamics study findings have relevance to other regions.

SUBMITTER: Jaleta M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6668782 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Smallholders' coping mechanisms with wheat rust epidemics: Lessons from Ethiopia.

Jaleta Moti M Hodson Dave D Abeyo Bekele B Yirga Chilot C Erenstein Olaf O

PloS one 20190731 7

Crops are variously susceptible to biotic stresses-something expected to increase under climate change. In the case of staple crops, this potentially undermines household and national food security. We examine recent wheat rust epidemics and smallholders' coping mechanisms in Ethiopia as a case study. Wheat is a major food crop in Ethiopia widely grown by smallholders. In 2010/11 a yellow rust epidemic affected over one-third of the national wheat area. Two waves of nationally representative hou ...[more]

PMID: 31365535

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Project description:Wheat rust diseases pose one of the greatest threats to global food security, including subsistence farmers in Ethiopia. The fungal spores transmitting wheat rust are dispersed by wind and can remain infectious after dispersal over long distances. The emergence of new strains of wheat rust has exacerbated the risks of severe crop loss. We describe the construction and deployment of a near realtime early warning system (EWS) for two major wind-dispersed diseases of wheat crops in Ethiopia that combines existing environmental research infrastructures, newly developed tools and scientific expertise across multiple organisations in Ethiopia and the UK. The EWS encompasses a sophisticated framework that integrates field and mobile phone surveillance data, spore dispersal and disease environmental suitability forecasting, as well as communication to policy-makers, advisors and smallholder farmers. The system involves daily automated data flow between two continents during the wheat season in Ethiopia. The framework utilises expertise and environmental research infrastructures from within the cross-disciplinary spectrum of biology, agronomy, meteorology, computer science and telecommunications. The EWS successfully provided timely information to assist policy makers formulate decisions about allocation of limited stock of fungicide during the 2017 and 2018 wheat seasons. Wheat rust alerts and advisories were sent by short message service and reports to 10 000 development agents and approximately 275 000 smallholder farmers in Ethiopia who rely on wheat for subsistence and livelihood security. The framework represents one of the first advanced crop disease EWSs implemented in a developing country. It provides policy-makers, extension agents and farmers with timely, actionable information on priority diseases affecting a staple food crop. The framework together with the underpinning technologies are transferable to forecast wheat rusts in other regions and can be readily adapted for other wind-dispersed pests and disease of major agricultural crops.

Project description:Wheat is one of the high-value major crops in the world. However, wheat stem rust is considered one of the determinant threats to wheat production in Ethiopia and the world. So this study was conducted to assess the disease intensity, seasonal distribution dynamics pattern, the genetic variability of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici, and to determine the virulence spectrum in the irrigated ecology of the Awash River Basin. Totally 137 wheat farms were evaluated, from 2014/15-2019/20 in six districts representing the Upper, Middle, and Lower Awash River Basin. Farm plots were assessed, in every 5-10 km intervals, with 'X' fashion, and data on disease incidence, severity, healthy plants were counted and recorded. Diseased samples were collected from the diseased wheat stem by Puccinia graminis physiological and genetic race analysis. The seasonal trend of stem rust disease progress showed its importance to infer the future progresses of the disease for the country's potential production plan of irrigated wheat. The result revealed that the disease prevalence, disease incidence, and severity were significantly varied; among the different districts and seasons in the two regions. The survey results also indicated that about 71.7% of the wheat fields were affected by stem rust during the 2018/19 growing period. The disease's overall incidence and mean severity during the same season were 49.02% and 29.27%, respectively. In 2019/20, about 63.7% of the wheat fields were affected by stem rust, disease incidence 30.97%, and severity 17.22% were lower than the previous season. In 2019/20, even though seasonal disease distribution decreased, the spatial distribution was expanding in Afambo and Dubti districts. Four, stem rust dominant races were identified (TTTTF, TKTTF TKKTF, and TTKTF) by physiological and genetic race analysis during 2018/19 and one additional race (TKPTF) in 2019/20, production year. The result indicated that the races are highly virulent and affect most Sr genes except Sr31 and Sr24. From the race analysis result, TTTTF, and TKKTF have the broadest virulence spectrum race, which affects 90% of the Sr genes. Generally, we can conclude that the spatial and seasonal distribution of the disease is expanding. Most of the races in the irrigated areas in the Basin were similar to that of rain-fed wheat production belts in Ethiopia, so care must be given, to effective management of the diseases, in both production ecologies towards controlling the spore pressure than race variability. Therefore, these findings provide inputs for wheat producers to reduce the spread and disease' damage in the irrigated ecologies of Ethiopia. Also, it gives an insight for breeders to think about the breeding program in their crossing lines.

Project description:BackgroundPremenstrual syndrome (PMS) is used to describe physical, cognitive, affective, and behavioral symptoms that affect young and middle-aged women occurring cyclically during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Despite the considerable prevalence and impact of PMS on individuals, their families and communities that interferes with the development of nations, many professionals are still unaware of it and little attention has been given in developing countries like Ethiopia, especially for university students. Therefore, this study was aimed for assessing the magnitude of premenstrual syndrome, associated factors and coping mechanisms among Wolkite university female regular students, 2021.MethodsInstitutional-based cross sectional study was conducted among Wolkite University regular female students from June 15/10/2021 to 30/10/2021 by using simple random and multistage with systematic random sampling technique to select the study participants (n = 591). Data were collected using a self-administered, pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire. Premenstrual syndrome scales comprised of 40 questions with three sub-scales were used to determine Premenstrual syndrome. Data were cleaned, coded and entered into Epi-data version-3.1, and analyzed using SPSS software version 25. Descriptive statistics were computed for independent variables as well as for coping mechanisms and presented in narration, tables and graphs. Analytic analysis schemes including bi-variable and multivariable logistic regression were computed to identify factors associated with premenstrual syndrome and those variables with a P value of < 0.05 in multivariable analysis were declared as statistically significant.ResultFrom the total of 631 study subjects, only 591 had completed the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 93.7%. From 591 study participants, 224 (37.9%) [95% CI: (34, 40.9)] of them had premenstrual syndrome. Abdominal cramp (78.8%), depression (73.3%) and fatigue (72.9%) were frequent premenstrual symptoms experienced by students. Having family history of PMS [AOR: 4.05; 95% CI: (2.49, 6.58)], no history of sexual intercourse [AOR: 2; 95% CI: (1.12, 3.47)], severe menstrual pain intensity [AOR: 3.09; 95% CI: (1.58, 6.05)], irregular menstrual cycle [AOR: 2.26; 95% CI: (1.41, 3.62)], early age of menarche (< 13 years) [AOR: 2.64; 95% CI: (1.34, 5.19)], long duration of menses (≥ 7 days) [AOR: 3.56; 95% CI: (1.53, 8.37)] and using many pads (> 8) during menstruation [AOR: 4.44; 95% CI: (2.16, 9.12)] were factors significantly associated with premenstrual syndrome. 93.4% of students apply at least one coping mechanism for premenstrual symptoms, of which; taking rest (67.6%) and sleeping (60.7%) were common strategies.ConclusionIn this study, premenstrual syndrome was found to be a problem of many students. Abdominal cramp, depressed feeling and fatigue were the predominant premenstrual symptoms experienced by students. Taking rest and sleeping were mostly applied by students as a coping mechanism. Family history of PMS, no history of sexual intercourse, intense menstrual pain, use of many pads during menstruation, irregular menstrual cycle, early menarche, and long duration of menses were found to be predictors of premenstrual syndrome. PMS needs great attention as part of the health care service in Ethiopia by involving all stockholders, including policy makers and health care professionals, to reduce its impact on the academic performance of university students.

Project description:Triticum aestivum (wheat), a major staple food grain, is affected by various biotic stresses. Among these, fungal diseases cause about 15-20% of yield loss, worldwide. In this study, we performed a comparative analysis of protein-protein interactions between two Puccinia graminis races (Pgt 21-0 and Pgt Ug99) that cause stem (black) rust in wheat. The available molecular techniques to study the host-pathogen interaction mechanisms are expensive and labor-intensive. We implemented two computational approaches (interolog and domain-based) for the prediction of PPIs and performed various functional analysis to determine the significant differences between the two pathogen races. The analysis revealed that T. aestivum-Pgt 21-0 and T. aestivum-Pgt Ug99 interactomes consisted of ∼90M and ∼56M putative PPIs, respectively. In the predicted PPIs, we identified 115 Pgt 21-0 and 34 Pgt Ug99 potential effectors that were highly involved in pathogen virulence and development. Functional enrichment analysis of the host proteins revealed significant GO terms and KEGG pathways such as O-methyltransferase activity (GO:0008171), regulation of signal transduction (GO:0009966), lignin metabolic process (GO:0009808), plastid envelope (GO:0009526), plant-pathogen interaction pathway (ko04626), and MAPK pathway (ko04016) that are actively involved in plant defense and immune signaling against the biotic stresses. Subcellular localization analysis anticipated the host plastid as a primary target for pathogen attack. The highly connected host hubs in the protein interaction network belonged to protein kinase domain including Ser/Thr protein kinase, MAPK, and cyclin-dependent kinase. We also identified 5,577 transcription factors in the interactions, associated with plant defense during biotic stress conditions. Additionally, novel host targets that are resistant to stem rust disease were also identified. The present study elucidates the functional differences between Pgt 21-0 and Pgt Ug99, thus providing the researchers with strain-specific information for further experimental validation of the interactions, and the development of durable, disease-resistant crop lines.

Dataset Information

Smallholders' coping mechanisms with wheat rust epidemics: Lessons from Ethiopia.

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Smallholders' coping mechanisms with wheat rust epidemics: Lessons from Ethiopia.

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