The study was conducted at Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Haramaya
University and Jimma University, Ethiopia. Crop yield is directly associated with the
physical and biological quality of planting material or seed. Ninety-nine (99) chickpea
seed lot samples were collected for physical purity, seed health and germination tests
from major chickpea growing areas in Ethiopia in the 2016/17 cropping season to assess
the status of chickpea seed health and quality among subsistence farmers, research
stations and seed growers. The seed lots were grouped as researcher saved, farmers saved
and seed growers’ saved seed. The maximum physical purity of 97.5% was recorded for
the researcher saved seed lots, 90.8% for the seed growers and 87.4 % for the farmers
saved seeds. Foreign matters and broken seeds were the most contaminants found in the
seed lots. The seed germination percentages were in the range of 96.3% to 98.5% for all
seed sources and there were no significant differences among the seed lot samples. A
total of seventeen (17) fungi species were isolated from all seed sources with different
frequency and amount. These are
Fusarium
spp.,
Aspergillus
sp.,
A. niger
,
A. flavus
,
A. nidulans
,
A. candidus
,
A. fumigatus
,
Penicillium
sp.,
Rhizopus
sp.,
Verticillium
sp.,
Rhizoctonia
sp.,
Pythium
sp.,
Alternaria
sp.,
Helminthosporium
sp.
Phylostica sp.,
Cladosporium
sp.,
Negrospora sp.
Aspergillus flavus was found the most dominant with
recovery (Relative Density=21.53%, Infection rate=10.36%, and Infection
Frequency=25.59 %) from all seed lots. There were high variations in relative density,
Infection rate, and Infection frequency among isolated fungi.
Ascochyta rabiei
the most
important chickpea disease was not found in this study. This might relate to the incidence
and prevalence of sample collection season/cropping year which was low in expected
areas. The current study concluded that there are seed qualities and seed health
management issues with regards to different seed sources (farmers, research and private
sectors); this entails strong seed quality control and growers’ awareness creation on
storage sanitation, seed health test before sowing, and production of healthy crops. To
keep the seed health in a better condition, seed growers should keep a wider interval of
rotation, develop use of the healthy improved seed, after some generation (4-5), seed
grading to avoid loss of physical purity, use of appropriate storage container (ventilated
and clean), seed dressing with safe pesticides, and appropriate moisture level for storage
(about 14%) should have to keep. Longer storage also gives a chance to contaminate the
whole seed and can expose to decay.
