TITLE:
Community Mobilization and Awareness Creation for the Management of Enset Xanthomonas Wilt (EXW): The Case of Gerino Enset Tekil Kebele Administration, Gurage Zone, Southern Ethiopia
AUTHORS:
Zerihun Yemataw, Awole Zeberga, Sadik Muzemil, Fikre Handoro, Mikias Yeshitla
KEYWORDS:
Awareness Creation, Community Mobilization, Enset, Enset Xanthomonas Wilt, Integrated Management, Gurage Zone
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.7 No.13,
September
16,
2016
ABSTRACT: Enset bacterial wilt (EXW) caused by Xanthomonas
campestris pv. musacearum is the major constraint in
enset-based farming system. The opportunity to provide integrated EXW
management options has opened a new vista and is enhanced by well-informed
communities who are aware of the management approach available to them. We hypothesized
that differential success in EXW control is mainly due to approach used in the
EXW control. It is the responsibility of the research institute to adequately
inform these communities via a combination of community mobilization and
awareness creation. This paper therefore assessed the importance of stake
holders’ mobilization and awareness creation for the promotion of technologies
for EXW control in Ethiopia among 2010-2012. Individual interviews and direct
on-farm participatory monitoring and observation with 60 farm households, key
informant interviews, relevant secondary data, literature and inter-personal
data were collected from unpublished progress report from National Enset
Research Project, elderly people and senior experts. Results showed that about
25.6% of farmers’ field was infected by the disease in 2007 and the level
reached 54.5% in 2010. End line assessment has shown that the disease prevalence
declined to 10 percent in 2013. Disease incidence has shown that the intensity
was highest in 2010; that is on average more than 17 enset were infected by the
disease and shown significant decline in 2013 to about 1 infected enset on the
infected fields. The intervention brought about promising step-ups in
controlling the devastation by EXW. This intervention demonstrated that the
disease impact can be minimized to a significant level if community
mobilization and awareness creation with other local formal and informal institutions
go hand in hand to out scale the experience to a wider range of enset farming
communities.