Distribution of Blight Diseases of Tomato in Selected Agro-ecological Regions of Uganda

Tomato is among the most commonly grown vegetables in Uganda and it is cultivated all year round. Some of the commonly grown varieties include; money maker, marglobe, ansal, azilla, and padma. Based on the survey, Ansal was the most preferred variety because of its big fruit size and long shelf life. A number of production challenges were identified and these included; pests and diseases, high seed cost and drought. Among the most important diseases affecting tomato pro-duction were early and late blight against which farmers heavily spray with fungicides. Effective management of plant dis-eases requires sufficient information. Information concerning early and late blight diseases in Uganda was scanty and the long timespan of research on blight diseases of tomatoes was the problem that led to this research. A survey was done in three agro-ecological regions to assess the incidence and severity of early and late blight diseases. This paper provides in-formation about early and late blight disease distribution. Late blight and early blight diseases were more severe in Lake Victoria crescent region. Nested analysis of variance was used for data analysis. Incidence of early blight disease was not significantly different across all the regions (p-value 0.219916) but significantly different across farms and districts. Late blight incidence was significantly different across all these regions (p-value 0.006898) as well as districts and farms. Key words: ansal, early blight, incidence, information, late blight, severity