Vol. 6, Issue 1, Part B (2024)

Sweet pepper (Capsicum annum L.) belongs to the family Solanaceae; it is an important group of vegetables extensively cultivated in almost every country of the world (Channabasavanna and Setty, 2000). A purposive sampling technique was used to select three farms in each Local Government to represent the four Agricultural zones of the state.The state has four Agricultural zones namely: Gwadabawa (Sokoto West), Isa (Sokoto East), Sokoto (Sokoto Central) and Tambuwal (Sokoto South) zones. Each zone has between 5 - 6 Local Governments’ areas (Junaidu, 2005). One hundred and twenty fruits were collected for the study. Cultural, microscopic and molecular techniques were used to identify the fungi, while poisoned food techniques was used to confirm the pathogenesity of the fungi isolated. Five fungal species which include Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium equiseti, Fusarium culmorum, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus fumigatus were isolated, identified and were found to be pathogenic to sweet pepper fruits. Fusarium oxysporum had the highest frequency of occurrence of all the four Agricultural zones investigated with Aspergillus niger exhibiting the highest degree of virulence on sweet pepper. The findings of this study recommended that studies should be conducted on plant extracts in management of fungal diseases of sweet pepper fruit in sokoto state.