Evaluation of Improved Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Varieties for Yield and Yield Components at West Hararghe, Eastern Ethiopia

Common bean is playing a crucial role across the world mainly in the warm and lowland areas of the country including Ethiopia. Understanding the level of drought tolerance of the varieties available in each country is of paramount importance for breeding common bean for drought adaptation. However, the production of common bean is mainly limited due to lack of high yielding potential varieties and frequent and recurrent drought. Hence, the study was aimed to evaluate and identify the superior performance and genetic potential of improved common bean varieties for yield and yield related traits against drought. A total of 10 recently released improved common bean varieties were evaluated using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications at Mieso during the main cropping season of 2018 and 2019. The information generated on the drought tolerance of the available varieties should help in the design of a breeding strategy that incorporates adaptation traits with commercial characteristics preferred by common bean farmers for varieties to be grown in diverse environments. The combined analyses of variance revealed the presence of tremendous genetic variation among improved common bean varieties for all the studied traits except plant height and stand count at harvest, which implies the availability of substantial genetic variation among varieties. Overall, SER-125, SER-19 and Nasir common bean varieties had better performance compared to the other varieties for yield and the yield related traits. The maximum grain yield was obtained from SER-125 (2620 kgha -1 ) followed SER-19 (2612 kgha -1 ) and Nasir (2583.33 kgha -1 ) common bean varieties and identified as the superior improved common bean varieties. Eventually, the effect of varieties on grain yield was significant and the best performing varieties of common bean would be recommended for the specific community and its vicinity even though further study should be carried out including a number of recently released varieties for improved common bean production in the target area and also to put the recommendation on strong basis. Therefore, based on the results of this adaptation experiment, SER-125, SER-19 and Nasir were recommended for production and adoption at Mieso and other similar environments.