Background and Objective: The population growth and changing food preferences in Ethiopia have resulted in an increasing demand for wheat which results in the expansion of irrigated wheat production to ensure food self-sufficiency. This expansion of irrigated wheat production for sustainability needs the identification of potential stakeholders with their roles and constraints. Besides, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis is also very important. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted at Jimma, Bunno Bedelle and East Wollega Zones of Western Oromia. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews with farmers, experts and unions were used. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the collected data. Results: Further expansion constraints like unavailability of inputs with skyrocketing prices, poor irrigation schemes performance, biotic stresses, insufficient farmersʼ skills and knowledge of the technologies, lack of financial sources, lack of local reliable market and shortage of modern schemes were identified as the major constraints to irrigated wheat production. The SWOT analysis has been done, showing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of irrigated wheat production. Conclusion: This new initiative knowledge should be useful through developing a regular input supply system, improving farmerʼs skills and knowledge, credit access to farmers, developing modern schemes, developing new disease-resistant varieties and strengthening market linkage by experts, policymakers, researchers and seed enterprise for better orienting investments on irrigated wheat production.

Wheat is widely grown in Ethiopia although production levels have not met the demand and price instability. One of the production gaps is that modern varieties cover a small portion of the total area occupied by wheat. Through the use of superior wheat technologies and prescaling up, the project aimed to boost wheat production and productivity for small-scale farmers. Two wheat varieties, Liban and Senate, were pre-scaled up in three zones of western Oromia. 147 farmers were addressed in ten PA and six districts. The total area addressed for wheat pre-scaling up was approximately 81 hectares. Yield and disease data were collected, as well as farmers' perceptions and interests. Thus, with an average mean of 4.5 tonsha -1 and 4.9 tonsha -1 , respectively, both types, Liban and Senate, performed better in terms of yield. However, compared to Senate variety, Liban variety demonstrated a lower response to numerous diseases. In order to sustainably increase wheat yield, scaling out of Liban varieties for the larger community across sites needs to be strengthened.

No abstract