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Abstract
Abstract
Coffee is a major export commodity and a source of foreign currency for Ethiopia. Smallholder coffee growers are dominant in the Bale Zone and poor handling practice leads to contamination of coffee by postharvest fungi. Therefore, the current study aim is to evaluate antifungal activity of plant extracts against postharvest fungi associated to coffee in Bale Zone, Ethiopia. A survey was conducted in three districts of Bale Zone: Berbere, Delo Mena, and Harena Buluk during 2017/2018. About 120 coffee samples were collected from three drying methods and two storage materials. In vitro antifungal activities were laid out in factorial completely randomized design with the combination of five plant materials and positive control, five fungal species, and three concentrations with three replications. The survey result revealed that the participants were performing dry processing and used both sisal sacks and fertilizer bags as packing materials. Coffee dried on cement had the highest fungal contamination (98.4%), followed by a plastic sheet (81.8%) and bed (61.0%). The samples obtained from fertilizer bags had higher fungal incidence (81.8%) than regular sacks (63.3%). Fungal species such as Aspergillus niger (79.1%), Aspergillus flavus (4.2%), Aspergillus ochraceus (1.9%), Fusarium spp. (12.5%), and Penicillium spp. (2.5%) were isolated from coffee cherries. Solanum nigrum has shown high inhibition of mycelial growth of tested fungi except for Aspergillus ochraceus and Fusarium spp. Plant extracts can be used as natural fungicide to control the growth of postharvest mould fungi and thus reduce the dependence on synthetic fungicides. Therefore, proper drying practices and a good storage system were found to be crucial in maintaining the postharvest fungal reduction associated with coffee cherries; and plant extracts had antimicrobial compounds that inhibited the tested pathogens.
Details
; Hassen, Shifa 2 ; Abdi, Mohammed 3 1 Werabe University, Department of Horticulture Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource, Werabe, Ethiopia
2 Madda Walabu University, Department of Plant Science, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource, Bale Robe, Ethiopia
3 Haramaya University, Department of Plant Science, College of Agriculture and Environmental Science, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia (GRID:grid.192267.9) (ISNI:0000 0001 0108 7468)