Performance Evaluation of Chickpea Varieties (Cicer arietinum L.) at Bule Hora and Abaya Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Chickpea is among the major pulse crops grown in southern Ethiopia including Borana and West guji zone. The area has potential to the production of Chickpea for food and nutrition security as well as export commodity. However, scarcity of varieties that fit to the environment is one of the major constraints of production. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to evaluate 9 chickpea varieties to select adaptable varieties for yield and agronomic traits. The field experiment was conducted in 2017 and 2018 at two locations (Abaya and Bule hora) and varieties were planted in Randomized complete block design. Data were collected on yield and important agronomic traits. Analysis of variance computed for individual locations and combined analysis over locations revealed significant variations among varieties. Moreover, Varieties showed a grain yield as high as 1087.5kg/ha and 873.79kg/ha at Bule hora and Abaya respectively. Minjar variety is significantly high yielding variety at both locations with yield advantage of 26.13% and 52.07% over variety mean at Bule hora and Abaya respectively and therefore recommended for both locations and locations with similar agro ecologies.