With the aim of offering an aid to evaluate disease severity of phoma leaf blight of coffee trees, a diagrammatic scale with eight levels of severity was developed. The scale was then validated by seven independent testers. As to the precision of the scale, R² values varied between 0.82 and 0.87, and 0.85 and 0.94, with and without the use of the scale, respectively. The absolute average error, expressing the real severity minus the estimated severity , was mostly lower than 10%. The scale evidenced good accuracy, with estimated values of severity close to the values of real severity. Reproducibility of the estimated values by the raters was satisfactory, with R² values superior to 0.75 in all cases. This validated scale is a suitable tool for the evaluation of the severity of Phoma leaf blight, one of the most important diseases of the coffee tree.
Coffea spp.; pathometry; plant disease epidemiology; plant disease management; tropical agriculture
