Improved Midland Maize (Zea mays L.) Varieties Demonstration at Western Harerghe Zone of Eastern Ethiopia

The research activity was carried out with the objective of evaluating and identifying adaptable improved maize varieties and to familiarize farmers with maize production techniques. It was executed at Badessa and Doba district of Western Harerghea Zone in main cropping season of 2019. The variety selection process was carried out from different dimensions including utilization, marketing and fi eld performance. Maturity period , cob size, seed size, grain color, disease and pest tolerance/ resistance , market demand and yield were identifi ed as important farmers criteria in the trial sites. Using these criterias the farmers identifi ed varieties that suit their respective location. Accordingly, trial farmers showed special interest to BH 546 and BH 547 varieties. As the preference of the farmers in each sites have already been identifi ed, it will be productive if the extension service consider farmers’ preferences in varietal promotion activity and are recommended for further scaling up to reach large small holder farmers through government organizations, Non-government Organizations, research institutes and other stakeholders works on maize technology promotion. Research Article Improved Midland Maize (Zea mays L.) Varieties Demonstration at Western Harerghe Zone of Eastern Ethiopia Abdulfeta Tariku* and Aseged Walelign Ethiopia Institute of Agricultural Research, Chiro National Sorghum Research and Training Center, P.O.Box. 190, Chiro, Ethiopia Received: 28 December, 2020 Accepted: 22 January, 2021 Published: 23 January, 2021 *Corresponding author: Abdulfeta Tariku, Ethiopia Institute of Agricultural Research, Chiro National Sorghum Research and Training Center, P.O.Box. 190, Chiro, Ethiopia, E-mail:


Introduction
Maize (Zea mays L) is one of the worlds' three primary cereal crops. It occupies an important position in world economy and trade as a food, feed and industrial grain crop. Maize holds a unique position in world agriculture as a food, feed for livestock and as a source of diverse, industrially important products.
Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in Ethiopia. It is an important fi eld crop in terms of area coverage, production and utilization. It ranks second in area coverage and fi rst in total production [1]. It is grown for its food and feed values and one of the most important staples and cash crops and the main sources of calories [2].
In Eastern Ethiopia, maize is the second crop both in productivity and in production [1]. It is the most extensively cultivated food crops and the main source of calories in western, southern and eastern parts of Ethiopia [3].
The low productivity of maize is attributed to many factors like frequent occurrence of drought, declining of soil fertility, poor agronomic practice, cease/limited use of fertilizer, insuffi cient technology generation and adoption, lack of credit facilities, poor seed quality, disease, insect, pests and weeds.
One of the major problems constraining the development of an economically successful agriculture is nutrient defi ciency [4].
In most parts of Western Harerghea midland, small scale maize production gradually become permanent activity for different purpose. However, the production and productivity is very low. Therefore, there is strong interest from farmers to replace the currently growing low yielding varieties by statistics and preference ranking. A total of 60 farmers were used doing data collection time. Finally data from different sources were triangulated to get reliable information.

Results and discussion
Based on a pre-informed visit it was attempted to follow up the trial on average every two weeks. During each visit discussions were made with the farmers and DAs right on the trial fi eld in order to jointly evaluate the performance of the varieties on the fi eld. During the visit both farmer's and DAs' data recording format were checked to observe how they handled the information gathering process.

Yield performance across districts
In the two districts the varieties tested with twenty trial

Farmers' opinion/perception
Farmers' in the study area selected the best performing improved midland maize varieties by using their own criteria.
Farmers set these criteria after having know-how about the variety and using those criteria they could select the varieties at harvest time. The opinion of those farmers on varietal preference was collected from participants during variety demonstration during farmers' fi eld day. The major criteria used by farmers were grain yielding, diseases and pest tolerance, cobe size, earliness, seed size, grain color and marketablity. Based on the above criteria's; farmers evaluated the varieties and ranked fi rst BH546 followed by BH547. Therefore, the most farmers selected both improved varieties to reuse on their farm for the future.
Farmers selection criteria in each sites ranked the maize varieties are indicated in Table 1 below. the main tools for enhancing the adoption of technologies and to assess farmers' feedback to tackle the problem which cause lack of food security. Therefore, this activity was designed to demonstrate the various improved midland maize varieties to farmers in major maize growing areas of Western Harerghea Zone, particularly, in Bedessa and Doba districts.

Objectives
• To create awareness among farmers, developmental agents and other participant stakeholders on improved maize production technology • To build farmers' knowledge and skill of production and management.
• To strengthen linkage among stakeholders and collect farmers preference feedback informations.

Site and farmers selection
The activity was carried out at Bedessa and Doba districts Western Harerghea Zone of Oromia region in 2019 main cropping season. The demonstration of the trial was implemented on 20 farmers' fi elds based on their interest towards the technologies, willingness to manage and allocate fi eld trial for the activity.

Implementation design
Three improved midland maize varieties (BH 546, BH 547 and SBRH) and one local check were used for the study. The varieties were replicated across ten trial farmers per districts. Each variety was planted on unreplicated plot design of plot size 10mx10m with total land size of 40mx40m at seeding rate of 25-30kg/ha on each selected farmer land. A spacing of 75cm*25cm (Between row and plant). Fertilizers, 100kg/hr of DAP and 100kg/hr urea basis rate were applied as per the recommended.

Training, fi eld visit and fi eld-day organized
Multidisciplinary research team; crop, extension and socio-economic research team and other stakeholders (Offi ce of Agriculture and Natural Resource) actively participated by sharing their experience and knowledge. Development agents, experts and farmers were participated on the training given on improved maize production and management, post-harvest handling and marketing information. Field day was also organized for more awareness creation.

Data collection and analysis method
Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The collected quantitative data were subjected to analysis using SPSS software version 20 (frequency, mean, standard deviation and range) while qualitative data collected using group discussion, key informant interviews, fi eld observation and focus group discussion were analyzed using descriptive