Abstract:
Barley is the fifth most important crop after teff, maize, sorghum and wheat in Ethiopia. However,
barley is attacked by different pests and causes a great yield loss. Barley shoot fly (Delia species) is
a major pest of barley on the highlands of Ethiopia. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess
the knowledge, attitude and practices of farmers towards barley shoot fly and also to determine the
abundance and population dynamics of barley shoot fly in Yem district, SNNPR, Ethiopia. The
study was conducted from September, 2013 to September, 2014. Community based cross-sectional
study and field survey were employed to generate data. Questionnaire, focus group discussion and
filed data collection were tools used for data collection. Overall, 185 study participants were
selected randomly from 356 households for the questionnaire survey. For focus group discussion,
four participants were purposively selected. Moreover, site field survey was employed to assess the
abundance and population dynamics of barley shoot fly. The collected data were analyzed using
SPSS software package version 16.0 and excel computer programme. P –Value less than 0.05 was
considered significant during the analysis. All (100%) of the respondents had awareness about the
presence of the barley shoot fly on barley in the study area. Also all (100%) of the respondents
cited chemical method as the main shoot fly control method in the study area. The reported
estimated mean yield loss in short and main rainy season in the absence of control measure was
(91.2%, 87%) and presence of control measures (34.06%, 31.6%) respectively. The mean
percentage infestation during the short and main rainy season was 54.3% and 47.6% respectively.
The infestation level on average was 54.3% and it was peak in May first week season 1and then
dropped indicating that the pest was more favored in the short rainy season than in main rainy
season or season 2. In addition, there was significant difference in the abundance of barley shoot
fly with respect to seasons (F = 4.645, P < 0.05) between season 1 and season 2 in the study area.
