Growth Characteristics and Yield Evaluation of Arabica Coffee(Coffea arabica L.)Promising Selections Under Sidama and Gedeo Growing Condition, Southern Ethiopia

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Ethiopia possesses a diverse genetic base for the Arabica coffee with considerable heterogeneity and is the center of origin for Coffee arabica. Even though Ethiopia produces a range of distinctive Arabica coffees and has considerable potential to sell a large number of specialty coffee, there is still a limited availability of yield competitive Variety; suitable for southern Ethiopian agro ecology. Therefore, this study was conducted in three location at Awada, Wonago and komato; highland and mid land representative agro ecology to evaluate sixteen south coffee promising selections from 1997 collection batch and two standard check varieties (Angafa and 744) in order to identify promising selection that exhibits stable performance across wide environments. The experiment was laid as in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Data were collected for Plant height (cm), Stem girth (cm), Canopy diameter (cm), Inter node length on the main stem (cm), Number of nodes on the longest primary (No.), Internodes length on the longest primary (cm), Number of primary branches (No.), Length of the longest primary branch (cm) and Number of main stem nodes (No.) as growth parameters and yield for five consecutive year’s per hectare basis. The study indicated that significantly high yield per hectare was recorded for promising selection 9737 (14.9 Qh-1) at Awada, 744 (8.92 Qh-1) at Wonag and 9716 (7.88 Qh-1) followed by 975 (7.7 Qh-1) at Komato than the rest of the selection. Whereas it was lowest for 9715 (6.46 Qh-1) at Awada, for 973 (1.25 Qh-1) followed by 9719 (1.42 Qh-1) at Wonago and 9753 (2.27 Qh-1) at Komato. The lowest mean yield 9.27 Qh-1 obtained from 973; 1.65 Qh-1 from 973 and 2.63 Qh-1 from 9738 at Awada, Wonago and komato respectively. In conclusion, this study result indicates that the existence of promising high yielder selection over standard check variety. Therefore, the promising selection has to be promoted to verification plot in order to test and release Coffee arabica improved selection varieties for southern coffee growers. Ethiopia possesses a diverse genetic base for the Arabica coffee with considerable heterogeneity and is the center of origin for Coffee arabica. Even though Ethiopia produces a range of distinctive Arabica coffees and has considerable potential to sell a large number of specialty coffee, there is still a limited availability of yield competitive Variety; suitable for southern Ethiopian agro ecology. Therefore, this study was conducted in three location at Awada, Wonago and komato; highland and mid land representative agro ecology to evaluate sixteen south coffee promising selections from 1997 collection batch and two standard check varieties (Angafa and 744) in order to identify promising selection that exhibits stable performance across wide environments. The experiment was laid as in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Data were collected for Plant height (cm), Stem girth (cm), Canopy diameter (cm), Inter node length on the main stem (cm), Number of nodes on the longest primary (No.), Internodes length on the longest primary (cm), Number of primary branches (No.), Length of the longest primary branch (cm) and Number of main stem nodes (No.) as growth parameters and yield for five consecutive year’s per hectare basis. The study indicated that significantly high yield per hectare was recorded for promising selection 9737 (14.9 Qh-1) at Awada, 744 (8.92 Qh-1) at Wonag and 9716 (7.88 Qh-1) followed by 975 (7.7 Qh-1) at Komato than the rest of the selection. Whereas it was lowest for 9715 (6.46 Qh-1) at Awada, for 973 (1.25 Qh-1) followed by 9719 (1.42 Qh-1) at Wonago and 9753 (2.27 Qh-1) at Komato. The lowest mean yield 9.27 Qh-1 obtained from 973; 1.65 Qh-1 from 973 and 2.63 Qh-1 from 9738 at Awada, Wonago and komato respectively. In conclusion, this study result indicates that the existence of promising high yielder selection over standard check variety. Therefore, the promising selection has to be promoted to verification plot in order to test and release Coffee arabica improved selection varieties for southern coffee growers.