YIELD PERFORMANCE AND ADAPTATION OF DESI CHICK PEA VARIETIES IN SELECTED DISTRICTS OF WOLAYTA AND HADIYA ZONES OF SOUTH ETHIOPIA

The experiments were conducted on station and on farm in three districts of Wolayta and Hadiya Zones, south region, Ethiopia, to evaluate the adaptation and yield, assess farmer’s preferences of desi chick pea varieties to this agro ecological Zones during 2004/05 Meher Season. Data on plant height, hundred seed weight, pod per plant, days to flowering, days to maturity and grain yield were recorded. Five released varieties namely worku, Akaki, Mariye, Dubie, Dz-10-11 and local checks of respective locations were planted on 4.8m2 plots at spacing of 30cm*10cm. The trials were laid in randomized complete block design with three replications. Twelve farmers from three districts at four villages’ three farmers at each village were participated in conducting on farm trials with each farmer as a replicate. There were significant differences among varieties for grain yield and some of traits. The varieties Akaki and worku were superior yielded overall to the standard and local check across villages ’and on stations. Thus, Akaki and worku out yielded other varieties and had average yields of 1440.95 kg/ha and 1434.75kg/ha at on station and similar trends on farm. The combined statistical analysis and farmers assessments revealed Akaki and worku out yielding other varieties which were also selected by farmers and researchers as the most preferred varieties’. It is therefore recommended that worku and Akaki which had higher yields be promoted for cultivation in the selected districts of south Ethiopia.


INTRODUCTION
Chickpea (Cicerarietinum L.) is the second most important pulse crop with 11.2 million cultivated areas in the world (Anonmyous, 2006). It is a cool-season annual pulse crop that is grown in tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of the world (Muehlbauer and Tulu, 1997).
Most production and consumption of chickpea (95%) takes place in developing countries. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is Ethiopia's most important pulse crop widely grown in highland and semi-highland regions of the country mainly on clay soil. It was grown on an area of 200,066.05 hectares of land annually with a production of 2,538,713.21 qt in Ethiopia (CSA, 2006/7). It is also an excellent source of human and animal food and also plays an important role in the maintenance of soil fertility, particularly in the dry, rain fed areas (Katerji etal, 2001) and it fixes Rhzobium bacteria on roots (Akcin,1988). The chick pea plant and its straw are used as forage, hay and silage in the vertisol soils of Ethiopian highlands. Previous livestock feeding experiments have been carried out in another place show chickpea to be a good source of protein for feeds, except that the amino acids methionine and cystine are deficient. Besides, similar to other pulse crops it is a good rotational crop and thus improves soil fertility.
Chick pea is produced in various zones, some special woredas and pocket areas in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS), south Ethiopia. In general, in this region chick pea occupies about 4,536.02 hectares of land annually with estimated production of 29,034.52 quintals (CSA, 206/7). The national average yield of chick pea in Ethiopia is 12.69 qt/ha and the regional average yield of 6.4 qt/ha, which is by far below the potential yield. The reasons for low yields in the region include lack of improved chick pea varieties, resistance to a biotic and biotic stresses. Past researches' in the country and elsewhere indicated that chick pea varieties produce significantly yields at different locations emphasizing to evaluate chick pea varieties in various agro ecological zones for their adaptation, yield potential and disease reaction so as to select appropriate varieties for promotion on farmers' field. Geletu Bejiga and Yadeta Anbessa (1992/93) evaluated 112 and 373 desi chick pea entries at Debrezeit Agricultural Research center and suggested that wide range variability existed among their chick pea lines for seed yield/ plant, plant height, days to flowering ,days to maturity, root rot ,wilt and pod borer. They stated that among those genotypes 52 entries that had good plant stand and showed high level of resistant to wilt were selected and also noted that those entries showed inferior as performance as compared to exotic material were discarded. Even though there were some research efforts to bridge the big gap between actual and potential yield in the chick pea is the result of mainly lack of adoption of improved production packages.
In general the production of chick pea all year round basis in all parts of Ethiopia is expected to increase production, thereby improve nutrition, contributes to food security as well as income of the producers. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to evaluate chick pea varieties in three districts of four villages and two stations with a view to selecting and recommending the variety (ies) that will best adapt to the conditions and assess farmer's preferences in the southern parts of Ethiopia.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study was carried out both at on station and on farm. The on station study was conducted at the South Ethiopia Agricultural Research Institutes of Areka regional Research center at Hossana and Jewi stations. The altitudes, annual rain fall, soil types of the study site are 2290mas.l, 1592.1mm, Profondic Luvisols for Hossana and 1900-2100masl, 1400-1600 mm, clay soil for Jewi station, respectively. The study involved testing of the total of five improved and local varieties for adaptation and yield performance. The trials were laid in randomized complete  Matrix ranking was used to assess farmers' opinion and perceptions on the varieties. To reveal farmers preferences on chick pea varieties, a total of 80 farmers (12 host and 68 non host farmers) at four villages; 20 farmers (3 host and 17 non host) at each village were selected and focus group interviews' were held with group of farmers to obtain their perceptions on the chick pea varieties under evaluation. Therefore, selected 20 farmers at each village were invited to visit the trial site at pod filling, maturity stage, at harvest and farmers were asked for their perceptions on the chick pea varieties under evaluation based on the specific criteria of yield, number of branch, pod length, maturity, seed color, seed size, number of seed per pod, pod number and taste.
A scale of 1-5 was used to assess these traits with the definition as follows: 5 = not preferred, 4 = less preferred, 3 = moderately preferred, 2 = highly preferred and 1= excellent. Farmers were asked to place 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 for variety ranking representing a given trait and variety according to the above scales. The Researchers were prepared chick pea varieties rating sheet indicating these criteria and farmers were asked by Researchers to give their preference by ranking the six varieties under evaluation. Farmers' responses were counted to get totals for each trait per variety; the smallest total count was assigned first rank. In addition to technical support; researcher also provides seed and chemicals for pest control to farmers. Farmers provide land and labour for crop management. Data was collected for plant height, pod per plant, hundred seed weight, days to flowering, days to maturity and grain yield per hectare. Data collected were

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The data available revealed that differences among varieties were significant for yield, plant height, number of pods, hundred seed weight (  (2013) reported that grain yield ranged from 315 kg ha-1 to 2273 kg/ha by average 1256 kg/ha. Two varieties (Akaki and worku) had higher grain yield than the local and standard check and also there was no significant yield differences between them at both study sites.
On farm: -Analysis of variance revealed that differences among varieties were significant (P<0.05) to highly significant (p<0.01) for grain yield ( Table 1). The grain yield was significantly different in varieties tested in this experiment and the maximum grain yield (1401.75 kg/ha) was recorded in variety Akaki, while worku produced average grain yield of 1308 kg/ ha ( The average grain yield from the four on farm sites ranged 817.7 kg/ha for the variety Dz-10-11 to 1401.8 kg/ha for variety Akaki (Table 3). Akaki and worku performed relatively better than others in all the villages. All the test varieties showed relatively lower performance in Jewi village than in the rest study villages. This might be due to poor management by farmers.
At Bobicho on farm, varieties Akaki and worku yielded significantly higher than both the standard check and local checks. The local check yielded significantly lower. The yield range from 756.9 to 1358.3kg/ha for this site and showed similar trends observed in Jewi village, varieties Akaki and worku out yielded the standard and local checks whereas the differences between them were not statistically significant.
Similar, in Gacheno village, significant yield difference was observed among varieties Akaki, work and the rest of varieties. However the differences among them were not statistically significant. These findings are in agreement with Kenea Yadeta (2001) who on analyzing on farm study developed technology, two improved chick pea varieties (worku and Akaki) and local at two seed rate in three districts during two cropping seasons. He found that in overall statistical and economically rating both improved varieties were preferred to local variety. These yields indicate with proper selection of varieties it is possible for farmers to achieve better yields and improved production packages. Abebe etal, 2005 reported that farmers have their own selection criteria for new varieties which largely depend on the importance of the crop in the farming system and uses. The ranking of chick pea varieties based on the perception of the farmers are presented in Table 4. As per the selection criteria set farmers ranked Akaki and worku either at the first or the second position across all three districts of four villages ( Table 4). The overall preference ranking of varieties based on nine criteria was in the order Akaki, worku, mariye, Dubie, Local and Dz-10-11,  , 2008). This means that in present study Akaki and worku newer improved cultivars could easily be introduced and incorporated in the farming systems based on various subjective preference criteria. Farmers preferred the variety Mariye thirdly as it produced attractive seed size and yield, whereas Dz-10-11 and local check were ranked the lowest.

CONCLUSION
Five chickpea varieties and local checks of respective locations were tested for yield and adaptation in selected districts of south region, Ethiopia. Differences among varieties were significant for grain yield and some of traits. Varieties Akaki and worku were visually selected by the farmers as good for grain yield and this study indicated that proper choice of varieties with improved management can boost farmers' yields to double. From this study, it showed that Akaki and worku varieties had the highest yields over others evaluated. Thus, observing the yield, researchers and farmer's perception, it can be recommended that Akaki and worku which had comparably highest yields be adopted for cultivation in the selected districts of Wolayata and Hadiya Zones in Southern Ethiopia.