Yield improvement in hot pepper through demonstration of improved variety (Melkashote) with improved production technologies under irrigation scheme, Abergelle, Tigray, Ethiopia

The demonstration was conducted in 2014/15 production season at Tanqua-Abergelle district, particularly at Hadash-Tekhli (Zembaw) irrigation scheme at farmers’ land. The scheme has high irrigation potential for horticultural crops production. But, improved technologies have not yet demonstrated. Therefore, the objective of this research was to demonstrate improved variety of pepper with improved management practice in to the irrigation scheme. The improved pepper variety (Melkashote) and local cultivar, ’Tsalet’ were used in the demonstration. The mean fresh fruit yield obtained from the improved pepper variety was higher (13.87 t/ha) than the local cultivar (10.16 t/ha). This shows 36.5% fresh pepper fruits yield increment over local cultivar, implying yield productivity per unit area can be increased by using the improved pepper variety. In addition, the improved pepper variety (Melkashote) required 115 days to mature whereas the local cultivar matured in 129 days. This shows the improved pepper variety was earlier in maturity than the local cultivar. In terms of monetary value, an average gross income of 202,859.60 Birr/ha or US$ 96,46.33 per hectare was generated from the improved pepper variety while from the local cultivar was 114,277.50 Birr/ha or US$ 5,434.10 per hectare. This implies the farmers were able to generate more income from the improved pepper fresh yield over the local cultivar. Besides, based on farmers’ perception results, except the attributes of fruit size, most of the respondents had favored the improved pepper variety (Melkashote) in its productivity, fruit length, fruit color, maturity, insect and disease resistance, marketability, fruit quality and taste than the local cultivar (Tsalet). Hence, the farmers decided to grow the variety in the next production season. Therefore, further popularization and scaling out activities should be done by the research center and office of agriculture and rural development of the district. Key words: Farmers’ perception, maturity, Melkashote, Tsalet, yield.