The study was conducted in Dawro Zone of Tocha (Edget and Medianalem kebele) and Essera Woreda (Arsi-bale Kebele) and Konta Special Woreda (Buba-damota and Chaka-bocha kebele). The objective of the study is to demonstrate, recommend and transfer the best performing bread wheat varieties in terms of grain yield performance and farmers’ preference. In each kebele, one FTC and twelve farmers (8 male and four femalefarmers were involved) during the ‘’meher’’ season of the year 2016. Training was given for the selected farmers and other stakeholderson the technology. Providing full packages of bread wheat technology- variety Ogolcho, Shorma and local were demonstrated in Konta Special Woreda but variety Shorma, Kakaba and Localwere demonstrated in Dawro Zone of Tocha and Essera Woreda. Plot size of 10m X 10m was used and seeds were planted at a rate of 150kg/ha in all fields. The recommended rate of DAPand Urea were used. The spacing between plots and row was 1m and 30cm with drilling method respectively. Field days were organized; farmers evaluated and selected the best performed varieties depending on their criteria's. The criteria’s were earliness, tillering capacity, seed size, and spike length, resistance to disease and grain yield. During farmers’ selection process both female and male farmers had been incorporated so as to avoid gender bias. The result showed that variety Ogolcho was the best yielder with grain yield of 39.7 qt/ha and 36 quintal/ha at Buba-damota Kebele and Chaka-bocha Kebele respectively followed by Shorma (37.8 qt/ha and 29 qt/ha respectively) in Konta Special Woreda. In Tocha and Essera Woreda, the result showed that variety Shorma was best performed at Edget kebele of Tocha Woreda (34.5 qt/ha) and Arsi-bale Kebele of Essera Woreda (34.4 qt/ha) respectively. Therefore, based on the farmers’ criteria and grain yield performance, variety Ogolcho selected as first followed by Shorma in Konta Special Woreda; variety Shorma in Tocha and Essera Woreda, were recommended with its full packages for further pre-scaling.
Keywords: Improved varieties, Ogolcho, Shorma, Kakaba and Local Check.