Enhancing Soybean Production Through On-Farm Demonstration of Improved Soybean Varieties at Tselemti and Tahtay Adyabo Districts of North-Western Zone Tigray, Ethiopia

Abstract

Soybean is a drought tolerant crop which can grow from low to medium altitudes. In the lowland areas of North-Western Tigray the growing of leguminous crop is very low. To introduce soybean commodity in North-western Tigray, demonstration of improved soybean varieties were conducted in 2018/19. The trail was conducted at Tahtay Adyabo and Tselemti Districts that have a potential for growing the soybean. It was conducted by selecting three Kebelles from the districts. A total of 35 farmers were involved in the intervention. The necessary training was given to the participant farmers and experts. Following this improved seed of Awassa-95 and Gizo varieties at Tahtay Adyabo Districts, and Wegayen and Gizo seed at Tselemti District were offered to participant farmers. Each farmer have been planted a plot size of 0.02 ha for each of the two varieties. The descriptive result shows, Awassa-95 soybean variety has given significantly higher yield at Tahtay Adyabo as compared to Gizo variety. The variety was gave an average yield of 1067 kg/ha and 570 kg/ha respectively Awassa-95 and Gizo varieties. On the other hand an average yield of 1231 kg/ha and 1052 kg/ha, respectively was obtained for Gizo and Wegayen varieties at Tselemti District. This shows that Tselemti District is more better for the cropping of Gizo variety. Moreover, the improved soybean verities (Gizo at Tselemti district and Awassa-95 at Tahtay Adyabo district) were found to be early maturing and best option to moisture stressed areas for the society protein source. Based on the result it is recommended to be popularize Awassa-95 soybean variety at Tahtay Adyabo District and Gizao soybean varieties at Tselemti District to large farmers. Therefore, the research center and the office of agriculture and rural development of the Districts to be popularized the varieties to large number farmers of the areas.