International Journal of Plant Breeding and Crop Science

Vol. 5(2), pp. 403-407, September, 2018. © www.premierpublishers.org. ISSN: 2167-0449

IJPBCS

Research Article

Participatory Varietal Selection and Evaluation of twelve

Soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] varieties for Lowland
areas of North Western Ethiopia
*Deresse Hunde1, Gezahegn Tefera2
1,2Pawe Agricultural Research Center, National soybean Research Program, Pawe, Ethiopia

Participatory varietal selection was carried out at North Western parts of Ethiopia, Metekel Zone
at Mandura and Mambuk woreda during the main cropping season in 2017/18, to select the best
performing, stable, adaptable Soybean varieties in the target areas, to enhance accessibility of
improved varieties for producers and to get farmers’ indigenous knowledge used in varietal
selection for future soybean research. The result of the current study clearly showed a significant
difference between the released 12 Soybean varieties for most agronomic traits obtained at both
districts. Seed yield, disease resistance and Number of pods per plant were the dominant
selection criteria used by the farmers at both districts. Accordingly, majority of farmers frequently
selected Pawe-01 variety. In addition, farmers gave priority for Seed yield at both districts and
secondly, they gave equal emphasis to Number of pods per plant, disease resistance and number
of branch per plant at Mandura and plant height, seed per pod and disease resistance at Mambuk.
General, development of high seed yielding with many pods per plant for Mandura and high
yielding with medium plant height in line with disease resistance and medium maturing for
Mambuk district can enhance farmers’ preference towards improved Soybean varieties.

Key words: Participatory Varietal selection, Farmers, Soybean, North Western Ethiopia, agronomic characters

INTRODUCTION
Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] is a papilionoid legume
crop that belongs to the family of leguminosae that has a
fairly wide range of adaptation for climatic conditions
(Seltene et al., 2016). The plant is classed as an oil seed
and pulse, fat free (defatted) soybean mail is a primary
low-cost source of protein for animal feed and most
prepackaged meals, soy-vegetable oil is another valuable
product of the processing soybean can produce at least
twice as much protein per acre than many other major
vegetable or grain crops (Mahasi, J., et al, 2010). 5-10
times more protein per acre than land set aside for grazing
animals to make milk and up to 15 times more protein per
acre than land set aside for meat product. Soybean is
mainly used for cooking oil, fodder and soil fertility
regulation (dual-purpose crop) in the study area (DeBoef
and Thijssen, 2006). Soybean is an internationally known
important pulse crop it is used for different purposes (Dixit
Ajay et al, 2011). In the 2015 /2016 cropping season this
crop covers about 38,166.04 hectares of land with an
estimated production not less than 812, 418.33 quintals
(Central Statistical Agency, 2015). Since the oil content is
high 23% and above) it is used for edible oil production.
The by product is cheap and an important source of protein
for both human consumption and animal feed. It can also
be used as soy meat and soy milk (Dixit Ajay et al, 2011).
In Ethiopia FAFA food processing plc company has
imported and used soybean prepare balanced food for
infants and adults. Recently the factory is trying to improve
the food values of other food types by mixing with soybean
flour, which indicates the importance of soybean and its
increment on the market (Ministry of Agriculture, 2013).
*Corresponding Author: Deresse Hunde, Pawe
Agricultural Research Center, National soybean Research
Program, Pawe, Ethiopia. Tel: +251912349587; Email:
deressehunde20@gmail.com; Co-Author Email:
2gtefera2014@gmail.com, Tel: +251913830166

Participatory Varietal Selection and Evaluation of twelve Soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] varieties for Lowland areas of North Western Ethiopia
Hunde and Tefera 404

More than twenty-seven improved soybean varieties have participated in varietal selection trials were selected in
been released at national and regional levels in Ethiopia; collaboration with the Development Agent of the two
out of this many of them are from Pawe research center districts based on their experience in soybean production.
(Ministry of Agriculture, 2013). But only a few of these Accordingly, fifty-one farmers were invited to the stations
varieties have been cultivated by farmers for a long period to evaluate the varieties that were nearly ready to harvest.
of time in the soybean growing areas of North western Twenty-three of the participants were women, whereas the
Ethiopia, Benishangule Gumuze Regional State, Metekel remaining twenty-seven of them are man. The experiment
Zone, Mandura and Mambuk woreda. This is mainly due was designed as a Randomized Complete Block Design
to lack of availability of seed of these improved varieties (RCBD) with 3 replications. The individual plot size was 4
and low level of involvement of farmers during the varietal rows wide, 60 cm between rows, 0.5 cm between plants
selection processes (Seltene et al., 2016). As a result of and 1.5m between blocks
knowing genetic variability in line with traits related with
high grain yield were helpful for researchers to develop Table 1: Varieties used in the study
high grain yielding soybean through selection and crossing Number Name of release variety Year of Release
technique in the country (Seltene et al., 2016). In addition, 1 korme (AGS-129-2) 2011
the information generated in this study is helpful to identify 2 Katta (PR-145-2) 2011
best high yielding soybean genotypes for the area that will 3 Clarc-63k 1981/82
be helpful for small scale holder farmers to produce these 4 Pawe-01 2014
crops in the future which will support in food security and 5 Pawe-02 2014
income generation (Seltene et al., 2016). Hence, the 6 Pawe-03 2014
present study was aimed at using participatory varietal 7 Gishama(PR-143-(26)) 2010
selection to determine selection criteria used by farmers in 8 Gizo(TGX-1885-33F) 2010
North Western Ethiopia, Benishangule Gumuze Regional 9 Jalele (AGS-217) 2003
state at Mandura and Mambuk woreda and consequently 10 Dhidhessa (PR-149-81- 2008
to select best performing variety among released Soybean EP-7-2)
genotypes and to enhance accessibility of improved 11 ETHIO-YOGOZLAVIA 2007
soybean varieties to producers and to learn about farmers 12 Local check (Belessa-95 2003
indigenous knowledge for the varietal selection that used (Pr-145))
in future soybean research program (Mukalama, J., 2010). Source: Ethiopian Minstry of Agriculture and Pawe
Agricultural Research Center

MATERIALS AND METHODS Data collected and Analysis

Description of the study area
The study was carried out in two areas of North Western
Ethiopia, Benishangule Gumuze Regional States, Metekel
Zone Mandura and Mambuk woreda during the main
cropping season of 2017/2018. Mandura is located 40 km
away from pawe and about 525 km North West Addis
Ababa (Paw Agricultural Research Agro-metrology, 2018).
It is located at 9 13' 09'' N latitude and 4200 19’ 25'' E
longitudes and an altitude of 1100 meters above sea level.
The soil is a well-drained sandy loam and receives a total
rainfall ranging from 460-1600 mm, averaging 671 mm per
annum, with mean annual maximum and minimum
temperatures of 28.1 °C and 15.5 °C, respectively (Pawe
Agricultural Research Center Agro-metrology). The area is
characterized by unimodal rainy seasons; the main rainy
season is "Meher" which extends from July to October.
Experimental Materials and Design
The experiment consisted of twelve released soybean
varieties and one standard check (Table1). Farmers who
Agronomic data were collected on plant height (cm), days
to maturity, hundred seed weight (gm), grain yield (kg/ha),
number of branch per plant, number of seed per pod and
number of pods per plant. The data generated was
subjected to the analysis of variance (Gomez and Gomez,
1984) using SAS Software version 9.3 and the means
were separated using LSD (Least Significant Difference)
at 5 % level of significance.
Farmers’ preference data were analyzed using pair wise
matrix preference ranking method. Pair wise Comparison
Matrix (Table 2) is a good way of weighing up the relative
importance of different courses of action. It is useful where
there are conflicting demands on resources or competing
in importance (Osiru et al, 2010). It is a tool that provides
a framework for comparing each course of action against
all others, and helps to show the difference in importance
between factors. In other words, it is used to compare each
option with each other option, one-by-one (Mukalama, J.,
2010). For each comparison, we decided which of the two
options was more important, and then assigned a score to
show how much more important it was (Majid et al, 2010).

Participatory Varietal Selection and Evaluation of twelve Soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] varieties for Lowland areas of North Western Ethiopia
 Int. J. Plant Breed. Crop Sci. 405

Table 2: Pair wise matrix comparison for farmers’ selection criteria at Mandura District
Parameters Medium in Disease Seed yield Seed/pod Pod/plant Height
maturing resistance
Medium in Medium maturing Medium maturingMedium maturing Medium maturingMedium maturing
Maturity
Disease Seed yield Seed yield Disease resistantDisease
resistance resistance
Seed yield Seed yield Seed yield Seed yield
Seed/pod Seed yield Seed/ pod
Pod/plant Pod/plant
Height
Pod/plant 1(4) disease resistant 2(3) seed yield 6(1) seed/pod 1(3) Maturity 5(2) height 0 (5)
NB: Values in the parenthesis indicates the selection criteria obtained by farmers preferences

Table 3: List of improved Soybean varieties ranked by farmers at Mandura and Mambuk in 2017/18 cropping season
Plot No Variety Rank
Mandura Mambuk
1 korme (AGS-129-2) 12 7
2 Katta (PR-145-2) 6 10
3 Clarc-63k 11 8
4 Pawe-01 1 1
5 Pawe-02 2 3
6 Pawe-03 3 2
7 Gishama(PR-143-(26)) 9 11
8 Gizo(TGX-1885-33F) 7 12
9 Jalele(AGS-217) 8 9
10 Dhidhessa (PR-149-81-EP-7-2) 5 4
11 ETHIO-YOGOZLAVIA 10 6
12 Local check(Belessa-95(Pr-145)) 4 5

Table 4: Pair wise matrix comparison for farmers’ selection criteria at Mambuk District
Parameters Drought Rust Seed yield Seed/pod Pod/plant Height
resistance resistance
Drought resistance Rust Seed yield Seed/pod Pod/plant drought
resistant
Rust resistance Seed yield Seed/pod Pod/plant Rust resistant
Seed yield Seed yield Seed yield Seed yield
Seed/pod Seed yield Seed/ pod
Pod/plant Pod/plant
Height
Pod/plant 2(5) disease resistant 2(2) seed yield 6(3) seed/pod 3(4) drought 1(1) height 0 (5)
NB: Values in the parenthesis indicates the selection criteria obtained by farmers preferences

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Farmers Preference Analysis
Participatory evaluation was done at vegetative and
physiological maturity stage of soybean varieties with the
total number of 28 male and 23 female farmers selected
based on their soybean farming background information
obtained from DA (Development Agent) for each districts.
Prior to the evaluation, discussion was made with the
farmers on the plant characters and selection procedure;
and then two distinct groups comprising male and female
were formed. They were agreed with plant height, no of
pods per plant, number of seed/pod, branch/plant, and
seed yield and disease resistance as selection criteria.
Most of the farmers preferred Pawe-1 from late maturing
soybean varieties. Based on the result obtained from pair
wise matrix (Table2), farmers at Mandura district gave
priority to seed yield during soybean varietal selection.
Secondly, they focused on seed/pod and pod/plant.
Accordingly, Variety Pawe-1 has been preferred by the
farmers at both district and occupies the first rank (Table
3). Therefore, the result indicated that if seed of the
selected variety is available, then farmers will be
interesting to produce and benefited from it. In the present
study, farmers in Mambuk District (Table4), indicated that
seed yield was one of the most important traits during
soybean varietal selection; next they gave equal

Participatory Varietal Selection and Evaluation of twelve Soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] varieties for Lowland areas of North Western Ethiopia
Hunde and Tefera 406

preference to seed per pod and disease resistant varieties, and rust resistance in soybean. In this regard, both highest
this is in agreement with the previous works reported by seed yield with highest canopy coverage in terms of
Mahasi et al. (2010). Therefore, development of high branch and many leaves were recorded by Pawe-1 variety.
yielding soybean varieties which can resist rust disease This result also is in agreement with the farmers’
and show good performance in yield will enhance farmers’ preference (Table5) in pair wise matrix comparison. The
preference to improve soybean varieties at Mambuk and analysis of variance result in Mandura showed that, there
Mandura district, this result is in agreement with Seltene et is a significant (p<0.05) difference for all parameters
al., 2016, finding in soybean considered and the highest variety is pawe-1 followed by
Pawe-2 and pawe-3 in Mandura and pawe-1, pawe-3 and
Agronomic Evaluation pawe-2 in Mambuk Districts(Table3).Pawe-1 showed
consistent and good performance across the two Districts.
Analysis of variance revealed a significant (p<0.05) Therefore, the variety needs to be multiplied and
difference for plant height, seed yield, seed/pod, pod/plant distributed in the testing areas for large scale production.
Table 5: ANOVA for seven characters measured for 12 varieties including local check at Mandura District during 2017/18 cropping
season
Plot No Variety Dm Ph Brch Pod Seed Hsw Gyld
1 korme (AGS-129-2) 103a 82.66bac 4.33cbd 68.3ba 2c 11c 847.2h
2 Katta (PR-145-2) 95.33bcd 66ed 4.53cb 68.7a 2c 12ba 1598.3ced
3 Clarc-63k 103a 83.66bac 4.1ed 63.6dec 2c 11c 1042.5hg
4 Pawe-01 97.66 bc 58.8e 5a 63.3de 2.1a 12.5a 2938.2a
5 Pawe-02 97bc 60.4e 4.53cb 66.9bac 2.1a 12.5a 2022.9b
6 Pawe-03 100ba 85.8ba 4.6b 66.9bac 2.1a 12.53a 1946.8cb
7 Gishama(PR-143-(26)) 96d 78.43bc 4.133ed 66.3bdac 2c 11.6bc 1434.2fe
8 Gizo(TGX-1885-33F) 94.66bcd 62.53e 4.56cb 65bdc 2.03bc 11.66bc 1501.9e
9 Jalele(AGS-217) 95.33bcd 58.8e 4.6b 63.3de 2c 11.33bc 1443.9fe
10 Dhidhessa (PR-149-81-EP-7-2) 99.33c 90.66a 4.46cbd 60.6e 2.03bc 12ba 1606.4ced
11 ETHIO-YOGOZLAVIA 98.333bc 59.33e 4.2ced 65bdc 2c 11.66bc 1407.4efg
12 Local check(Belessa-95(Pr-145)) 97bc 77.13bc 4.3cbd 66.5bdac 2.06ba 12.5a 1889.1cbd
CV (%) 2.8349 6.5095 10.471 0.57 3.55 1.46 6.9635
LSD 3.72 4.02 8.78 5.18 3.28 1.26 3.86
Grand mean 45.66 97.125 71.50 4.33 64.94 2.027 108.14
Means followed by same letter within a column are not significantly different at 0.05 probability level
Where: Ph= Plant height (cm), Dm=Days to maturity, Hws = hundred seed weight (gm), Gyld = Grain yield (kg/ha),
Brch=number of branch per plant, Seed= number of seed per pod and Pod= number of pods per plant, CV= Coefficient of
Variation, LSD=Least Significant Difference.
Table 6: ANOVA for seven characters measured for 12 varieties including local check at Mambuk District during 2017/18
cropping season
Plot No Variety Dm Ph Brch Pod Seed Hsw Gyld
1 korme (AGS-129-2) 103.67a 49.52dc 4.2fg 63.067ba 1.9c 12.26d 2277.5fe
2 Katta (PR-145-2) 96.67d 77.167a 4.57fde 42.27gef 2a 12de 1869.2hg
3 Clarc-63k 102.67 ba 67.8 bac 4.7bdec 46.97 def 2 a 12.83 bc 2076.7fg
4 Pawe-01 95.67d 69.03cba 5.167a 52.467dc 2a 11.5fe 3369.3a
6 Pawe-03 98.67dc 61.7bdac 4.7bdec 36.67g 2a 13.5a 2995bc
5 Pawe-02 102.67ba 566bdc 4.33feg 51.93dc 2a 13.3ba 3365a
7 Gishama(PR-143-(26)) 99bdc 74.1ba 4.53feg 61.967ba 2a 11.83de 1616hi
8 Gizo(TGX-1885-33F) 104 a 72.67 ba 5.1ba 60.33 b 1.9 c 11f 1436.2i
9 Jalele(AGS-217) 97.67 dc 70.03 ba 4.97 bdac 43.43 gef 1.9 c 13.5 a 2025.8fg
10 Dhidhessa (PR-149-81-EP-7-2) 99bdc 54.33bcd 5.2a 47.23de 1.93bc 12de 2775.3dc
11 ETHIO-YOGOZLAVIA 102.67ba 47.57d 4.13g 40.33gf 1.96ba 12.83bc 2505.6de
12 Local check(Belessa-95(Pr-145)) 101.33bc 65.5bdac 5bac 56.83bc 2a 12.33dc 2579.3d
CV (%) 2.17 18.63 5.36 7.92 1.20 2.52 6.64
LSD 3.66 20.16 0.4256 6.897 0.039 0.5236 276.8
Grand Mean 100.20 64.189 4.707 51.64 1.96 12.32 2472.68
Means followed by same letter within a column are not significantly different at 0.05 probability level
Where: Ph= Plant height (cm), Dm=Days to maturity, Hws = hundred seed weight (gm), Gyld = Grain yield (kg/ha),
Brch=number of branch per plant, Seed= number of seed per pod and Pod= number of pods per plant, CV= Coefficient of
Variation, LSD=Least Significant Difference.

Participatory Varietal Selection and Evaluation of twelve Soybeans [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] varieties for Lowland areas of North Western Ethiopia

The analysis of variance revealed that there was a
significant difference among the varieties and the average
yield for pawe1 (3369.3 kg/ha) followed by Pawe -2
(3365kg/ha), pawe-3 (2995kg/ha) and the local check
Belessa-95 (2579.3kg/ha) at Mambuk woreda, (Table6). In
this case the farmers’ preferences coincide with the
breeders’ selection. The evaluations mean score for each
variety ranged from 1476.2 kg/ha to 3369.3 kg/ha. The
highest score was recorded by pawe-1 and pawe-2,
whereas the lost was recorded by Gizo (TGX-1885-33F
(1476.2 kg/ha) at Mambuk (Table6). Whereas the
evaluation mean score of soybean variety tested at
Mandura woreda, the highest score was recorded by
pawe-1(2938.2kg/ha) followed by pawe-2 (2022.9 kg/ha)
and the local check balassa-95 (1898.1kg/ha)(Table5), at
Mandura woreda. All the three varieties which were
selected by farmers are relatively recent released varieties
when they are compared with the other varieties within
their late maturity groups, but the farmers are being
cultivated for the older varieties (Belesa-95 and Ethio-
Yugoslavia) in the two selected woreda.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
In this study the pair wise matrix analysis explained that
farmers in Mandura District gave priority to pod/plant
during Soybean varietal selection. Secondly, they gave
preference to seed yield and Disease resistance
respectively. Farmers in Mambuk District mainly were
focused on seed yield and subsequently, they gave equal
emphasis to seed/pod and Disease resistant varieties.
These imply that to enhance farmer’s preference towards
Soybean improvement program, the current breeding
program needs to give attention to the aforementioned
traits in the two districts. Both the agronomic and farmers
preference data analysis revealed that Pawe-1 has been
selected on both districts. As a result, this variety needs to
be multiplied and disseminated to producers and farmers
that are playing a great role in soybean seed system
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors are grateful to the project AGRA-Soybean
seed system for providing funding during the research
period. Special thanks also go to Pawe Agricultural
Research Center, Ethiopian Institutes of Agricultural
Research (EIAR) for convincing the AGRA-seed system to
consider soybean commodity. Special thanks also go with
all participating farmers, agricultural experts and
Development Agents (DA) of Mandura and Mambuk
District for their cooperation and honesty in making
farmers to participate actively on varietal selection from
beginning up to the end of selection and evaluation
processes.
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Accepted 9 September 2018
Citation: Hunde D, Tefera G (2018). Participatory Varietal
Selection and Evaluation of twelve Soybeans [Glycine max
(L.) Merrill] varieties for Lowland areas of North Western
Ethiopia. International Journal of Plant Breeding and Crop
Science 5(2): 403-407.
Copyright: © 2018 Hunde and Tefera. This is an open-
access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original author and source are cited.