Abstract
Field pea is one of the protein rich grain food legumes that have a lion share in human diet in Arsi zone. It is a long time ago that field pea crop improvement started in which more than 16 new varieties released those are selected primarily for yield potential, but there is a traits left considered as a very import by majority of farmers. This study intended to recognize farmers important traits consider for decisive varieties to grow. The study was conducted at south eastern Arsi of Ethiopia, representing five major field pea producing location, in one growing season, using a participatory variety selection approach. A total of nine improved and one local check field pea varieties are used. Majority of farmers’ were found around fourteen traits that can influence the selected varieties across all location. There is also some traits those are more sensitive to gender difference. Among fourteen traits, nine were considered very important in one or all of the location in a growing season. Unfortunately there are preferred traits that are not given high priority by the current field pea breeding program in Ethiopian. This study indicated that there is no field pea variety possesses all desirable characteristics that meet the diverse farmers’ selection criteria that adapted to varied location and a growing season. It is better if farmers’ preference traits would be considered in breeding program for a country Ethiopia where the crop is consumed as a stable food.
Highlights
Pulse crops conquer an irreplaceable place in global agriculture through asset of highly nutritious and a huge share on contribution on atmospheric nitrogen fixation
Farmers are clearly considering many traits when choosing which field pea variety to grow. This is consistent with several other studies, in other crops, which stressed that small farmers consider multiple traits for variety selection [3, 5, 18, 14]
It is reliable with the reflection that the majority of field pea producer farmers in Ethiopia grow more than one variety as one variety rarely meets all needs
Summary
Pulse crops conquer an irreplaceable place in global agriculture through asset of highly nutritious and a huge share on contribution on atmospheric nitrogen fixation. In Ethiopia the crop is widely grown in mid to highland and ranks fourth per the area coverage attainment of 8,141,031 ha with an annual production of 3, 481, and 44.631 [7]. The crop has a significant role in soil fertility restoration and serves as a break crop suitable for rotation to minimize the negative impacts of cereals based on mono cropping [21, 11, 9] It used as bases of income for the farmers and foreign currency for the country [8, 20]. It fluctuates and beneath the potential as compared to the World production of 2t per hectare [7]
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