A study was conducted at Melka Hida and Wonji Gefersa farms where Awash River was used for cultivation of vegetable crops to assess heavy metal contamination of vegetables. To what extent these vegetables are contaminated is not known. Three leafy vegetable samples, namely, cabbage (Brassica oleracea Linn.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and spinach (Spinacea oleracea) from Melka Hida and Wonji Gefersa farms were examined for heavy metal (Cd, Cr and Pb) contamination using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results indicate that the heavy metals in vegetables of Melka Hida farm were higher than those of the vegetables in Wonji Gefersa farm. In all the samples analyzed, the concentration of Pb and Cd was more than the maximum limit and their levels varied from 0.31 to 0.65 and 0.21 to 0.40 mg/kg, respectively. However, the level of chromium was generally within the normal range in cabbage (0.85 and 0.29 mg/kg) and spinach (1.30 and 1.06 mg/kg) from Melka Hida and Wonji Gefersa farms, respectively, except in lettuce from Melka Hida farm, 2.4 mg/kg. The high levels of these heavy metals place the consumers of these vegetables grown within the study area at health risk with time unless an urgent step is taken by relevant agencies to address this issue.

Food safety issues are of growing concern to consumers globally because of the risk associated with consumption of foods contaminated with pathogens in irrigated vegetables. The study was conducted to assess the extent of bacterial contamination of vegetables due to irrigation with polluted Awash River water. Three leafy vegetable samples, namely, cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. var. capitata), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. longifolia) and spinach (Spinacea oleracea) from both farms were examined for bacterial contaminants. The results show that spinach was found to be the most heavily contaminated vegetable in both farms by aerobic bacteria. The aerobic mesophilic bacterial count on this vegetable was 2. ) was recorded in cabbage sampled from Wonji Gefersa. The high microbial contamination rates associated with these vegetable samples indicated poor water quality for irrigation employed in the overall production of vegetables in the study area.

Coffee crop has been contributing a lion share to the Ethiopian economy. Despite of its economic significance, it suffers from many production constraints, of which arthropod pests influence both the yield and quality of coffee. The study was aimed to assess the prevalence of arthropod pests and indigenous management across two agro-climatic zones, in the Gedeo agroforestry systems. Twelve farmscapes were randomly selected from the two agro climatic zones. From each farmscape, samples were taken from traditional and improved coffee fields. On each site, two quadrats of 10 m × 20 m plots of coffee fields were sampled to assess the presence/absence of pests and / or damage symptoms, the number of pest arthropods and the damage level per coffee tree for determining the pest prevalence. The number of pests per plant was subjected to SPSS ver.20 statistical software, and the pair wise comparison was computed to compare each study sites. The result indicates that the three top prevalent coffee pests were coffee berry borer (H. hampei), coffee white stem borer (A. leuconotus), and Serpentine leaf minor (C. alertreuta). However, there is no significant difference on pest prevalence among the agroclimatic zones. Although disease incidence was very high across the study sites, the highest incidence was recorded in Gololcha kebele (82%), of Kochore district. In all cases the level of infestation was below standard, and coffee arthropod pests do not seem to be serious major problems responsible for the coffee production loss. Yet, we recommend multi seasonal and multi temporal data to arrive to the conclusion about the pest status of the study area.