Evaluation of improved mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) varieties for yield in the moisture stress conditions of Abergelle Areas, Northern Ethiopia

Abstract

Mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) also known as green gram, golden gram, Oregon peas and chokoro (Swahili), is an economically important short duration legume crop for drought prone/ moisture stressed areas. Due to drought escape/early maturity in case of terminal drought in Ethiopia, improvement of grain yield of Mung bean (Vigna radiata L.) is the main objective to avoid food insecurity. A field experiment was carried out during the 2016 and 2017 main cropping seasons using a randomized complete block design with three replications in order to evaluate eight characteristics viz., days to 50% flowering, seed filling period, 90% physiological maturity, plant height, number of pod per plant, number of seeds per pod, seed yield and thousand seed weight for six mung bean varieties under rain-fed conditions at Abergelle Agricultural Research Center on station in Ethiopia. Analysis of variance showed that, differences varietal was observed for traits studied (p≤ 0.05) except number of pods per plant. The variety Rasa had better performance than the other varieties with the highest seed yield (1776 kg ha-1), while the lowest seed yield was obtained from local Sheraro (889 kg ha-1). Thus, Rasa is recommended as promising variety to the farmers of Abergelle areas.