PERFORMANCE AND FARMERS’ EVALUATION OF RELEASED GROUNDNUT (Arachis hypogaea L.) VARIETIES AT BABILE, EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

The study was conducted at two locations; viz. Babile research station and Ifa Peasant Association areas to identify farmer preferred best performing groundnut varieties. Ten released varieties with two local cultivars were evaluated under participatory variety evaluation in randomized complete block design with three replications. All studied phenological, yield and yield components showed highly significant differences among varieties except stand count after gap filling and stand count at harvest. Mean values indicated that variety Sedi, Fetene and Werer-961 were the earliest varieties to mature, while BaHa-jidu, Sartu, and Roba were late to mature at Babile research station. Likewise, variety Sedi, Fetene and Werer-961 were the earliest varieties to mature while BaHa-gudo, Sartu and Babile-2 were late to mature at Ifa Peasant Association. The highest and the lowest hundred seed weight values were recorded for variety BaHa-gudo (103.35 g) and Sedi (50.22 g) respectively, at Babile research station. Similarly, the highest and the lowest hundred seed weight values were recorded for variety BaHa-gudo (110.59 g) and Sedi (49.94 g) respectively, at Ifa Peasant Association. At Babile research station, variety Babile-1, BaHagudo, Babile-2, Fetene, and Werer-961 produced high seed yield than the mean (1.61 t ha-1), while BaHa-gudo, Babile-1, Babile-2, Roba, and Werer-962 produced high seed yield than the mean (2.00 t ha-1) at Ifa Peasant Association. Out of these, BaHa-gudo, Babile-1 and Babile-2 were constantly high yielding varieties at both locations. Participant farmers identified seed yield, pod yield, maturity time, disease resistance, haulm yield, growth habit, seed size, and drought tolerance as important selection criteria for groundnut varieties. Seed yield was the uppermost selection criterion followed by pod yield based on matrix ranking. BaHa-gudo, Babile-1 and Babile-2 were identified and ranked first to third, respectively, by the participant farmers.