Ilyass Maafa

International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA)

Cool season legumes (Faba bean, chickpea, lentil, pea, and grass pea) are important protein harvests for food and nutrition security in many countries. They play key roles in sustainable cereal production through their ecological benefits. However, diseases and pests attack continue to have a substantial impact on crop yield and quality. Although g...

Olive leaf spot (OLS), also called olive scab and peacock eye, caused by Fusicladium oleagineum, is a major disease that causes significant damage to olive trees. However, we still lack information about how cultivar and environmental factors influence disease development. In this study, evaluation of the incidence and severity on twenty olive cult...

Kabuli chickpea is the most important temperate food legume in wheat based cropping system of Morocco.The area covered by the crop is over 88,000 ha in 2015-16 with a production of 44,000 tons which is not enough to meet the demands of the population, a fact that pushed the country to import chickpea to fill the gaps. The low productivity of chickp...

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.sp ciceris is one of the major diseases impacting chickpea productivity. Significant losses are reported by farmers due to the absence of effective wilt management options. Biological control using beneficial microorganisms in agriculture, is one of the promising alternatives and eco-friendly strategies...

Fusarium wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f.p ciceris (Foc) is a devastating soil-borne disease of the chickpea. The disease causes crop losses in late-planted chickpeas and no available management option currently exists to recommend to farmers. In order to determine the effect of integrating sowing dates with chickpea genotypes on disease parame...

Fusarium culmorum is one of the most important causal agents of root rot of wheat. In this study, 10 F. culmorum isolates were collected from farms located in five agro-ecological regions of Morocco. These were used to challenge 20 durum wheat genotypes via artificial inoculation of plant roots under controlled conditions. The isolate virulence was...

Being aware of the importance of wheat in the Moroccan economy, its protection against biotic stress mainly wheat septoria is essential asrespect of the environment. Thus, biological control is one of the most interesting long term strategies. In this frame, an in vitro study of antagonistic effects in direct confrontation was conducted between 5 a...

The reuse of treated wastewater (TWW) is considered as one of the alternative solutions to limit the shortage and preserve the natural resource. The water potential in Morocco is estimated at 22 billion m3 per year, equivalent to 700 m3 / inhabitant / year. This quantity of water could fall to 500 m3 by 2030 under the pressure, in particular, of cl...

The potential use of bacterial antagonists isolated from different area in Morocco for the biological control of grapevine crown gall caused by Allorhizobiumvitis was investigated. In vitro analyzing the activity of 90 bacterial isolates towards Allorhizobiumvitis strain S4 resulted in a selection of 26 biocontrol agents. The isolated were tested f...

Spraying sporals suspensions prepared from the antagonist's cultivation of a Trichoderma harzianum strain on the seedlings of 24 tender wheat lines as a preventive treatment under controlled conditions, causes a decrease of severity for most lines towards the E1 strain of Septoria tritici compared to the control seedlings.

La multi résistance fongique pose de grands problèmes au niveau de la protection des plantes. En effet, il ne reste que peu de produits antifongiques efficaces contre certains agents multi résistants. Les scientifiques sont donc à la recherche de nouveaux produits d’origine naturelle, présentant moins de danger pour la santé, palliant aux effets se...

The extract of a medicinal plant Daphne gnidium, was tested for its in vitro and in vivo antifungal activity against Pyrenophora teres Drechs. f. teres the fungi causing Net blotch of barley. The extract obtained by plant decoction is tested in vitro on the growth diameter of five Moroccan isolates of Pyrenophora teres Drechs. f. teres. Twelve conc...