| Summary: | Enset (Ensete ventricosum Welw. Cheesman) is a perennial crop, cultivated by millions of smallholder farmers in the south, central, and southwestern Ethiopia. However, its production has been endangered by one of the overwhelming enset bacterial wilt (EXW) disease caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum (Xcm). The burden of the disease and the geographical distribution and the main contributing environmental factors are not precisely known. Therefore this study was aimed at determining the magnitude of enset bacterial wilt and identification of biophysical factors that influences the spatial distribution of the disease using spatial statistical analysis techniques in Yem special district, southwest Ethiopia. Different data on EXW prevalence and incidence were collected by applying purposive and spatial random sampling methods. The logistic regression method was used to model the relationship between EXW prevalence and response variables. And a generalized linear model was employed to analyze the relationship between EXW incidence and response variables. The results show that EXW disease is widely distributed at different degrees of intensity. The overall average EXW prevalence and incidence rates are 64.4% and 20.11%, respectively. The predicting variables such as annual relative humidity (RH), total precipitation, altitude, silty soil texture, are positively correlated with EXW prevalence.Similarly, in the case of EXW incidence,RH,total annual precipitation, altitude, silty soil texture, soil pH, and insect vector (leafhopper) are positively correlated. This finding can be used as guidelines to control the spread of the disease on hot spot areas and further contributes to the growing research on the etiology of EXW.
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