Abstract

The trail was conducted in Yilemana Densa district of the Amhara Region in 2013 with the objectives to evaluate the performance of improved faba bean cultivars with P-fertilizer and bio fertilizer under on-farm conditions, while demonstrating such a technology package to farmers thereby paving the way for wider adoption. The trial consisted of four treatments (two improved cultivars with and without fertilizers) was established on fifteen farmers’ fields selected from three Kebeles of the district. The trial was laid out as a simple design, considering Kebeles as blocks and host farmers as replications. The fertilizer inputs applied for this trial were 25 kg DAP and inoculated seed with FB-EAL-110 bio fertilizer at rate of 500 g per hectare at planting. Host farmers were participated in the whole process of the trail from land preparation to harvesting. Field days were organized whereby three groups of farmers evaluated the four treatments with their own evaluation criteria by scoring. Agronomic data were also collected on plant height, biomass and grain yields, and analyzed using analysis of variance. CIMMYT partial budget analysis was used for economic analysis. The result of farmers’ preference analysis showed that Wolki and Tumssa with fertilizers; Wolki and Tumssa without fertilizers were ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, respectively with the overall evaluation criteria. The result of ANOVA showed that there was significant difference in mean grain yield between Tumssa and Wolki cultivars, between treated and non-treated plots with fertilizers, between Tumssa with and without fertilizers, and between Wolki with and without fertilizers. The result of partial budget analysis indicated that Tumssa and Wolki cultivars with fertilizers can give marginal rates of return of 254% and 300%, respectively over their respective cultivars without fertilizers. The overall result showed that Wolki cultivar with fertilizers gave the highest grain yield and economic benefit and farmers’ also ranked it first among the four treatments evaluated. Therefore, to increase the productivity of faba bean with low cost, Wolki cultivar with fertilizers should be promoted in the district and elsewhere in the Amhara region for wider adoption.

Key words: Faba bean improved cultivars, bio-fertilizer, inorganic fertilizer, farmers’ evaluation criteria.