Susceptibility of common bean cultivars to storage fungal pathogens

In Menoua Division, common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is amongst the legumes which are greatly cultivated with farmers growing different cultivar types. Upon harvest, these cultivars are stored to be used as food over the storage period or for sale. Unfortunately, appropriate facilities for storing the cultivars after harvest are not available hence predisposing the grains to fungi infection. The knowledge of cultivars resistant to damage by storage fungi would therefore have a considerable value in the absence of appropriate storage structures. This research aimed at determining whether differences might exist among common bean cultivars in susceptibility to damage by fungi under storage environment by farmers in Menoua Division and also identifying the less susceptible cultivar type to fungi infection. Six different common bean cultivars were evaluated for fungi contamination upon storage using PDA media. The large seeded bean cultivar was designated the most susceptible to fungi infection on storage having the significantly highest (P ˂ 0.05) fungi population. The least susceptible were the pinto bean cultivar, navy bean cultivar and Pea bean cultivar. Four storage fungal genera were isolated from the different bean cultivars. These included: Aspergillus, Fusarium, Penicillium, Morphospecies or ‘Mycelia sterilia’. Inherent differences exist among cultivars of common bean in susceptibility to infection and damage by storage fungi.