Participatory varietal evaluation of open pollinated maize in Western Amhara, North-west Ethiopia

Elmyhun, Melkamu; Mekonen, Molla

doi:10.1007/s12892-015-0089-6

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Smallholder farmers must be efficient in determining whether crop varieties suit their needs and the agroecology they inhabit. For these reasons, smallholder farmers are knowledgeable of traits concerning environmental adaptability such as resistance to drought, frost, pests, and diseases (Asrat et al, 2010 ), as well as of agro-morphological traits such as number of spikes and seeds produced (Elmyhun and Mekonen, 2016 ). The varietal evaluation given by farmers may not overlap to that of breeders (Burman et al, in press ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome Wide Association Study to Identify the Genetic Base of Smallholder Farmer Preferences of Durum Wheat Traits

et al. 2017

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Smallholder agriculture involves millions of farmers worldwide. A methodical utilization of their traditional knowledge in modern breeding efforts may help the production of locally adapted varieties better addressing their needs. In this study, a combination of participatory approaches, genomics, and quantitative genetics is used to trace the genetic basis of smallholder farmer preferences of durum wheat traits. Two smallholder communities evaluated 400 Ethiopian wheat varieties, mostly landraces, for traits of local interest in two locations in the Ethiopian highlands. For each wheat variety, farmers provided quantitative evaluations of their preference for flowering time, spike morphology, tillering capacity, and overall quality. Ten agronomic and phenology traits were simultaneously measured on the same varieties, providing the means to compare them with farmer traits. The analysis of farmer traits showed that they were partially influenced by gender and location but were repeatable and heritable, in some cases more than metric traits. The durum wheat varieties were genotyped for more than 80,000 SNP markers, and the resulting data was used in a genome wide association (GWA) study providing the molecular dissection of smallholder farmers' choice criteria. We found 124 putative quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling farmer traits and 30 putative QTL controlling metric traits. Twenty of such QTL were jointly identified by farmer and metric traits. QTL derived from farmer traits were in some cases dependent on gender and location, but were consistent throughout. The results of the GWA study show that smallholder farmers' traditional knowledge can yield QTL eluding metric measurements of phenotypes. We discuss the potential of including farmer evaluations based on traditional knowledge in crop breeding, arguing for the utilization of this untapped resource to develop better adapted genetic materials for local agriculture.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome Wide Association Study to Identify the Genetic Base of Smallholder Farmer Preferences of Durum Wheat Traits

et al. 2017

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“…ese selection attributes are also used by farmers with different socioeconomic and agroecological backgrounds. Melkamu Elmyhun and Molla Mekonnen [18] report that after a group discussion held with farmers, husk cover, cob number per plant, cob length, ear height, disease tolerance, and yield were identified as evaluation criteria.…”

Section: Farmers' Participation In Variety Evaluation and Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Participatory Evaluation of Open Pollinated Maize (Zea mays L.) Varieties for Green Cob Production Under Irrigation in the North Shewa Lowlands, Ethiopia

Chakle

Tewolde

Mamo

2022

Advances in Agriculture

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In the experimental area, there is a lack of improved maize varieties for green cob production. The experiment was conducted at Efratana gidim woreda Yimlo Kebele FTC-station in the North Shewa zone during the 2017 and 2018 experimental years under irrigation conditions. The objective of the study was to select adaptive, high-green cob yielders and farmers who preferred open-pollinated maize varieties for the lowland areas of North Shewa. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Six nationally released open-pollinated maize, varieties including local check, were evaluated for two subsequent years. The combined analysis of variance showed highly significant ( p < 0.01 ) differences for days to anthesis, days to silking, and number of cobs ha−1. In each year, farmers participated and selected the top preferred varieties. During the 2017 experimental year, farmers used a number of cobs per plant, bear tip, cob length, uniformity, husk tip coverage, earliness, and stalk strength as selection criteria, and during the 2018 experimental year, farmers also used cob length, bear tip, earliness, lodging tolerance, and biomass as variety selection criteria. Varieties Melkasa-2 and Melkasa-6Q have been selected in both years. Analysis of variance revealed that both farmers preferred varieties that gave a high number of cobs, which is 46,914 and 41,358 cobs ha−1 for varieties Melkasa-2 and Melkasa-6Q, respectively. Based on this result, varieties Melkasa-2 and Melkasa-6Q were recommended for the North Shewa lowlands and similar agroecology.

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Participatory varietal evaluation of open pollinated maize in Western Amhara, North-west Ethiopia

Cited by 2 publications

References 1 publication

Genome Wide Association Study to Identify the Genetic Base of Smallholder Farmer Preferences of Durum Wheat Traits

Genome Wide Association Study to Identify the Genetic Base of Smallholder Farmer Preferences of Durum Wheat Traits

Participatory Evaluation of Open Pollinated Maize (Zea mays L.) Varieties for Green Cob Production Under Irrigation in the North Shewa Lowlands, Ethiopia

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