Seed System Analysis of Soybean, Glycine max L. Merrill, in South Western Ethiopia

Abstract

Soybean is the most important legume grown worldwide and Ethiopia. It has versatile uses as a human food, animal feed and it contribute to increases soil fertility. Despite the significance of soybean to address food and nutrition in security problems prevailing in the country, little emphasis has been given to quality seed production, quality seed supply and popularize of this important commodity. Limited information is available on the soybean seed system of Ethiopia. The present study was conducted to study the soybean seed system in southwestern Ethiopia. Three districts vis. Tiro Afeta, Omo Nada and Chawaka of Jimma zone were included in the study. A total of 152 farmers from nine peasant association were interviewed and n=(N/1+Ne2) formula was used for sampling population size. A considerable proportion of the sampled farmers used their own saved seed out of 152 sampled farmers. From the total 152 sampled household about 85.5% of farmers did not know name of the variety they used. The study showed that, at Tiro Afeta district all the sampled farmers used polypropylene as seed packing material. At Chawak, 59.6% of sampled farmers used polypropylene and 40.4% used fertilizer bag. The average seed replacement rate at Tiro Afata, Omo Nada and Chawaka districts was 1.5, 3.59 and 7.7 years, respectively. Germination percentage was high for JARC seed sample of SCS-1 variety (99.6%) and Chawaka’s farmer’s seed sample (85.3%). In General at the study area, Access of seed system, market information and market linkage appears was the main constraint in the study area. The problems of producing soybean was not only limited to this but also: low production and productivity, unavailability of improved varieties, Quality of seed, disease and pest, lack of systematic approach in popularizing the crop and Lack of training farmers on the production and processing of soybean.