First report of the new yellow rust races and expansion of virulent races of stem rust in irrigated wheat production areas of Ethiopia (during 2020/21 and 2021/22 cropping seasons)

In Ethiopia, wheat is cultivated on nearly 1.7 million hectares and accounts for 13.49% of the crop land, with an annual production of 4.5 million metric tons both in rain fed and irrigated ecologies (CSA, 2019). The irrigated environment has better productivity than the rain fed.  Stem (Puccinia graminis f.sp. tritici) and yellow (Puccinia striiformis f.sp. tritici) rust pathogens are the two major biotic stresses in wheat in Ethiopia. The objective of this study was to determine the virulence composition and race diversity of Pgt and Pst pathogens in irrigated agro ecologies of Ethiopia in 2020/21 and 2021/22.