A suspected fungal disease was observed on onion leaves during survey in onion fields of the central rift valley of Ethiopia in the offseason in 2019. The disease symptoms were round to oval small spots on onion leaves which coalesce to form blighted leaves that change to brown lesion and black sporulation with time. The disease was of high incidence (up to 95.2%) and severity (up to 4.67) where in some fields it has been causing early plant senescence and reduced bulb size during harvest with massive yield loss, named to be "Yeshinkurt Ebola" to mean "Ebola of onion" by farmers. Dirty white to light grey front colony color and light brown to deep brown reverse colony color with alternative white and brown band fungal growth were isolated from infected onion leaf samples. The conidia were olive brown, oval to ovoid, oblong and ovoid to oblong are born on conidiophores. Pathogenicity of the pathogen was confirmed on 45-days-old onion (cv. Nafis) plant, and it was identified as Stemphylium vesicarium based on cultural, morphological and pathogenic results. This is the first report of S. vesicarium, the causative agent of onion stemphylium leaf blight.

The use of chemical pesticide in Ethiopian agriculture has a steady historically growth and strongly associated with the need to boost crop production and expansion in a high-input floriculture industry. An increased crop production and productivity is mainly dependent on effective and efficient pest management strategies. Recently, achieving these strategic goals of the sector seems to be impossible without intensive use of synthetic pesticides. Unfortunately, the chemical-based option of pest management was not able to deliver only the positively intended purpose of managing pests. It has raised a potential menace not only to public health and the environment but also to the fast-growing economy of the country. The main objective of this review was to highlight the negative health and environmental impacts of agricultural pesticides in Ethiopia. Literature based comprehensive review was made with the intention to influence stake holders in the sector to recognize the negative impact of agricultural pesticides to help them to devise a mitigating strategy and finally the authors tried to indicate solutions on this regard. Health conditions such as dizziness, nausea, skin and eye irritations, headache, vomiting and general discomfort after spraying are some of the self-reported direct health problems. Other chronic non-reported health problems/deaths were also associated with misuse (handling and disposal) of pesticides. Mismanagement of pesticides kills important organisms and are damaging to the biodiversity. Moreover, an intensive, non-responsible use of pesticides has increased the cost of pest management, accelerated the development of new pests and/or resistant strains (races) of pests and negatively affected the international trade of farm produces. Lack of awareness (poor pesticide management, disposal; and limited use of complete PPEs), obsolete pesticide stocks, prolonged storage, poor storage facilities, the lack of trained staff and national legislation for pesticide registration and monitoring system in the country are the main reasons associated with pesticide risks. Harmonized agriculture development policy, capacity building, organic farming, IPM compatible pesticides and gender-sensitive education will change the risk of agricultural pesticides.