Participatory Varietal Selection and Agronomic Performance Evaluation of Field Pea (Pisum Sativum L.) Varieties in West Shewa, Ethiopia

Lemma Diriba*

Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Ambo Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia

*Corresponding Author: Lemma Diriba, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Ambo Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia.

Received: July 15, 2022; Published: January 20, 2023

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate on-farm and select farmer’s preferred varieties by comparing with agronomic characters of field pea varieties. The experiment was conducted both at on-station and on-farm in Western Shewa, Ethiopia. The on-station experiment was carried out at Ambo Agricultural Research Center using RCBD with three replications. Five improved varieties were evaluated by comparing with one local variety and selected for desirable attributes. Participatory variety evaluation and selection trials involving farmers were conducted at on-farm in the districts of Ambo, Dandi, and Wonchi during 2020 and 2021 main seasons. Two farmer’s fields were used from each district, and the farmer’s fields considered as replications. In addition to agronomic data such as days to flowering, plant height, pods per plant, seed per pod, farmers used different criteria to assess field pea varieties starting from emergence to maturity and after harvest of the crop. The major farmers’ selection criteria were growth habit, yield performance, disease and pest resistance, marketability, and suitability for diet. Based on selection criteria, most of the farmers were highly select the variety of Bilalo followed by Burkitu. The agronomic data analyzed also revealed that the farmers’ preferred varieties were selected for their high yielding, and other tested traits. Accordingly, the results from combined analysis showed Bilalo was the best yielder with seed yield 2850 kg/ha followed by Burkitu (2800 kg/ha), Bursa (2416.7 kg/ha), Gume (2333.3 kg/ha), Adi (2016.7 kg/ha), and local variety (1816.7 kg/ha). These results indicated that farmers had deep knowledge to select and make decision of the preferred superior varieties compared to the inferior varieties.

Keywords: Farmers’ Criteria; Field Pea; Participatory Selection; Yield

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Citation

Citation: Lemma Diriba. “Participatory Varietal Selection and Agronomic Performance Evaluation of Field Pea (Pisum Sativum L.) Varieties in West Shewa, Ethiopia". Acta Scientific Agriculture 7.2 (2023): 82-89.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2023 Lemma Diriba. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.