Fusarium Species Associated With Cultivated And Wild Millets In Kenya And In Australia.

Abstract

The nature and abundance of the Fusarium species associated with mature finger millet, Eleusine coracana, from three agro-climatic regions of Kenya were assessed in one growing season. The three regions were Kisii, Lugari and Mbeere. The three regions differed in respect of average annual rainfall and average annual minimum and maximum temperatures. Kisii is the wettest region with 1800 - 2100 mm of rainfall per year, and Mbeere the driest with 800-900 mm of rainfall per year. Kisii has the lowest mean annual maximum temperature 2YC and Mbeere the highest, 30°C. The mean annual minimum temperatures for Kisii and Mbeere were 16°C and 1 TC respectively in contrast to 12.6°C for Lugari. The nature and abundance of Fusarium species associated with finger millet were compared with the species isolated from the weed millet species E. indica and Panicum repens in Kenya. The nature and abundance of species associated with P. repens in Kenya were also compared with those of species associated with P. repens in north-western New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Over 1000 isolates were recovered during the community studies.