On-Farm Demonstration and Evaluation of Improved Faba Bean (Vicia Faba L.) Varieties in North Shewa Zone of Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

The demonstrations of faba bean varieties were done in two consecutive years (2016/17 and 2017/18) with production packages in the Degem and Debre Libanos districts in the North Shewa zone of the Oromia region. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate and evaluate the performance of improved varieties under farmers' field conditions in the study areas. The demonstration was done in 18 farmers' fields using four improved varieties Tumsa and Gora for nitosol and Hachalu and Didia for vertisol with local varieties. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze and present the collected data. Grain yield, farmers' performance scores, and feedback were taken from the demonstration sites. In the districts, the demonstration plot size followed was 100 m 2 and a seeding rate of 250 kg ha -1 . At planting, DAP fertilizer 100 kg ha -1 and biofertilizer 500 g ha -1 were applied. The result of the analysis showed that the improved varieties gave a higher yield than the local control variety. The average grain yield harvested in the Degem area showed that an improved variety of Gora and Tumsa improved variety offers 16.7 qt/ha and 15.7 qt/ha, respectively which is higher than the local variety that gave an average yield of 9.2 qt/ha. In the Debre Libanos district, the variety Hachalu and Didia also gave a mean yield of 22.4 and 23.3 qt/ha higher than the local 8.7 qt/ha. The yield advantage of the two improved varieties over local varieties was 1.67 and 1.57 qt/ha and 8.41 qt/ha for Nitosols and 13.7 and 14.6 qt/ha for Vertisols. The performance score result shows that variety Gora ranked first in terms of grain production, disease resistance, marketability, and seed size followed by Tumsa on nitosols and Hachalu followed by Didia on vertisols. Therefore, both the government and non-governmental organizations must support the research and dissemination of geographically adaptable varieties to smallholder farmers.