The study was conducted in four selected potential areas of North Shewa zone namely; Kewot, Efratana gidim, Ensaro and Merhabete district. The main objective of the study was to evaluate, select the best performing mungbean varieties and to assess farmer's technology preference. The experiment was done using three improved varieties namely; Rasa (N-26), NLV-1, and Arkebe improved varieties and local variety as a check. The analytical result showed that Rasa (N-26) variety was preferred by the farmers followed by NLV-1. The result gotten from the analysis of variance indicated that the difference among the means of the mungbean varieties for grain yield, pod length and hundred seed weight are significant at 5% probability level for both locations. The highest yield (1541.3 kg/ha) was recorded from Rasa (N-26) variety at Jema valley followed by the local variety (1243.3 kg/ha), while the lowest yield (735.7 and 676.3 kg/ha) was obtained from the varieties NLV-1 and Arkebe, respectively. The partial budget analysis result also revealed that only Rasa (N-26) had the highest net benefit return compared to the local variety. The marginal rate of return for changing from using local variety to improved Rasa (N-26) variety was 1074%. Therefore pre-scaling up of Rasa (N-26) variety with its improved management practice should be done.

Background: Chickpea seed supply is limited for a local level farmer to the farmer seed exchange systems. The scale-up was conducted in the vertisol potential areas of North Shewa Zone of Amhara Region to create wider demand for improved chickpea varieties, strengthen the linkage among the possible actors and enhancing technology multiplication and dissemination to improve its productivity. Methods: Naatolii, Mastewal, Arerti and Habru improved chickpea varieties were introduced and more than 393ha of land was covered and about 826 farmers were accessed through delivering more than 49.3 tons of improved seed. Result: The productivity of chickpea in the area was boosted to 2.61tons ha-1 and yield advantage of 73% to 97.7% was obtained from improved varieties compared to the local cultivar. As a result of this intervention, many farmers benefited easy access to improved seeds of different chickpea varieties through direct seed marketing and farmer to farmer seed exchange.

Pulse crops are important components of crop production in Ethiopia's smallholders’ agriculture, providing an economic advantage to small farm holdings as an alternative source of protein, cash income, and food security. Mung bean is one of the most important cash crops in the low land of the North Shewa zone. This research was, therefore, initiated to provide an insight of scaling up of Rasa (N-26) mung bean variety and documenting best approaches to maximize production and productivity of the crop through improving the availability of improved varieties to farmers. The activities were done in the low lands of North Shewa areas of Efiratana gidim, Kewot, Shewarobit, Ensaro, and Merhabetie districts, under main growing season for two consecutive years (2016 – 2017) using Rasa variety. About 54 ha of land were covered through disseminating 2.17tons seed and a total of 203 (including 2 female farmers) farmers participated and directly benefited during the dissemination of mung bean variety. The productivity of mung bean in the area was boosted to 1.6 tons ha-1 and a yield advantage of 45.5% was obtained from improved varieties compared to the local cultivar. The introduction of the improved variety Rasa (N-26) which has a large seed size, high biomass, and grain yield attracts the attention of farmers, experts, and local traders. Developing and verifying pesticides, technical backstopping and supplying of early generation seed, and also introducing post-harvest storage materials is very crucial for sustained production and productivity improvement of the crop.

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