Tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the most commonly consumed beverages next to water worldwide. However its production and productivity is constrained by many fungal diseases in Ethiopia. Despite this, there is lack of information on the status of the diseases and lack of knowledge on features of the pathogens associated with the diseases as there have been no any systematic assessments conducted so far. Therefore, the current works were designed with the objectives to assess the distribution of tea diseases and identify the associated pathogens. For this purpose, field surveys were carried out across three tea estate farms (Wushwush, Chewaka and Gumaro) and tea out growers surrounding them in Kafa, Sheka and Ilu Aba Bora zones in Southwest Ethiopia during the 2019 season. Causative pathogens of the diseases were identified using cultural and morphological features. The average Fusarium wilt incidence varied from (0 to 20%), Black rot (7-15%), Bird's eye spot (4-15%), Brown blight (2-5%) and Grey blight (0.5-5%) while mean disease severity of Black rot, Eye spot, Brown blight and Grey blight ranged from 4-11%, 3-9%, 1-5% and 0.5-5%, respectively. Fusarium wilt, black rot disease and eye spot diseases of tea directly related to tea yield loss. Algal leaf spot disease caused by Cephaleuros virescens was observed at Gumaro tea estate farm on the older leaves of aged tea bushes. The present study revealed the economic importance of tea diseases in Southwest Ethiopia. Future research should be directed towards the investigation and determination of management options for the control of important diseases of tea in the country.

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Coffee is the most important commodity and source of export earnings in Ethiopian economy which has to fulfills the quality standards of safety up to maximum tolerable level. However, it is naturally associated with several mycoflora and some of them may produce Ochratoxin A unless careful handling measures taken place. Therefore, this research was initiated to assess the status of mycotoxigenic fungi associated with coffee and quantification of Ochratoxin A from locally consumed coffee in Ethiopia. A total of 75 coffee samples were collected from three districts namely, Haru, Homa and Nedjo of West Wollega Zone, Oromia regional state of Ethiopia. Determination of coffee associated mycoflora isolation and identification were conducted at Jimma Agricultural Research Center of plant pathology laboratory while Ochratoxin A detection and quantification were conducted at Ambo Plant Protection Research Center. Malt Extract Agar (MEA) was used for isolation and identification of mycoflora associated with coffee and ELISA kit was used to detect and quantify Ochratoxin A. The result showed that numbers of mycoflora associated with coffee were observed and five of them become the major. Aspergillus niger was the most dominant (73.37%) species detected from most coffee samples, followed by Aspergilus ochraceus (11.30%), Fusarium spp. (7.37%), Penicillium spp. (6.74%), and Rhizopus spp. (1.50%), respectively. Average ochratoxinA recorded was 0 (ND) ppb, 1.24 ppb and 2.02 ppb from Haru, Homa and Nedjo.