Evaluation of Newly Released Improved Haricot Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Varieties Under Smallholder Famers’ Condition in Metekel Zone, Northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia has favorable agro ecologies for haricot bean production. The people habitually consume it besides serve as a cash crop across the country. The current production status is not comparable to the existing market and consumption needs coupled with low productivity due to absence of improved haricot bean varieties. This study focused on evaluation of newly released improved haricot bean varieties under smallholder farmers’ condition in Metekel Zone. The evaluation was done in Debate and Mandura districts due to their potential. Five kebeles and 22 hosted farmers were selected purposively based on their experience and willingness to implement the demonstration. SER-119, SER-125 and NASIR varieties were the materials used for evaluation. Each participant farmer provided a 25 m* 25 m (625 m²) plot of land for each variety. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 42 farmers (20 control group) through appropriate data collection tools. The data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS (version 26) software package. Farmers’ preference ranking also carried out accordingly based their own criteria. Marketability, grain yield, seed color, maturity date, pod number per plant and disease resistance were the main preference traits for famers. Results show the highest (1303.55 kg ha^-1) mean grain yield observed from SER-119 variety in all testing sites. Although yield variability observed among the varieties, all the evaluated improved varieties have significant yield increment over the control at (p<0.01). The highest net return (16,539.19 ETB ha^-1) received from SER-119. Findings revealed that SER-119 and SER-125 dominated NASIR variety particularly regarding grain yield and preferred varieties by farmers. Therefore, farmers have been encouraged to use the preferred varieties accordingly for large-scale production with close guidance of development agents and experts.

Keywords: Demonstration, Farmers’ preference, Haricot Bean, Metekel and Varieties

DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/12-20-04

Publication date:October 31^st 2021