On-Farm Demonstration of Improved Rice (Oryza sativa L) Varieties in Pawe Woreda of Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia

doi:10.7176/jbah/10-1-07

Abstract

The research is financed by Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research Abstract Four varieties (Hidasie, Nerica-12, Nerica-4 and Pawe-1) were demonstrated and evaluated on a farmer’s field. Average yield performances of the demonstrated varieties show 42.66, 34.19, 33.41 and 32.23 quintal per hectare of Pawe-1, Nerica-3, Hidasie and Nerica-12 varieties respectively. Pawe-1 variety showed better yield performance. In the ranking, Pawe-1 was selected as the best-preferred. Based on farmers’ perception, Pawe-1 was ranked first as it produces a good yield, high tilling capacity, the white colour of the grain and preferred at the market with good price. This result indicates Pawe-1 variety is farmers’ best preferred and top performed variety which can be considered as a promising variety to be widely produced by rice farmers in the study area. The yield under demonstration plots was higher than the local cultivar and the use of research recommended rice cultivation method can reduce the technology gap to a considerable extent. Therefore, it is recommended that the office of agriculture of the woreda needs further scale up the varieties to other areas to benefit quite a significant number of farmers. Keywords: Demonstration, evaluation, Pawe, rice, varieties. DOI : 10.7176/JBAH/10-1-07 Publication date: January 31 st 2020

Highlights

In Ethiopia, agriculture is the leading sector which contributes to nearly 34. 9% of GDP It serves as the main source of food and generates 88.8% of the foreign exchange earnings
This shows even if the rice has been recently introduced to the area, recognizing its importance as a food security crop and a source of income, the area coverage and production increasing but the productivity is low compared with the potentials of research released varieties for the study area
From the findings of this research, it was observed that there was a difference among the varieties used for the demonstration in the study area

Summary

Introduction

In Ethiopia, agriculture is the leading sector which contributes to nearly 34. 9% of GDP It serves as the main source of food and generates 88.8% of the foreign exchange earnings. The woreda is one of the rice-producing areas, and it is considered as the major crop and cultivated by smallholder farmers for household consumption (injera, bread and alcoholic drinks) It is used as a cash crop, source of feed, and house construction material (Teshome and Dawit, 2011). According to the report of Pawe woreda agricultural office (PWoA, 2014/15–2018/19), the total land used for rice production and total yield over the period is increasing This shows even if the rice has been recently introduced to the area, recognizing its importance as a food security crop and a source of income, the area coverage and production increasing but the productivity is low compared with the potentials of research released varieties for the study area. With these in view, the study was carried out to show the performance of recently released rice varieties with their agronomic recommendations and select and recommend the best-fit variety based on farmer’s selection criteria for future technology scaling-ups

Materials and Methods

Yield Performance

Findings

Rice farmers considered varietal traits and ranking

Conclusion and Recommendations