Landrace (Farmers’ Varieties) Diversity of Field Pea (Pisum sativum L., Fabaceae) in Arsi Zone of Oromia Region and Kefa Zone of SNNPR, Ethiopia
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Date
2017-06
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
This study was undertaken to identify and document the landrace (farmers’ varieties) diversity along with
description of the morphological variability and ethnobotanical uses of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) in
Arsi and Kefa zones, Ethiopia. From each of these two study zones, three kebeles (lowest administrative
unit) were randomly selected within each stratum. The strata were first determined based on purposively
sampled agroecological zones and ethnic groups or cultural zones. A total of 144 randomly selected
general informants and 24 purposively selected key informants were interviewed using a set of structured
questionnaire and semi-structured interview guide, market survey and field observations. Voucher
specimens and seed samples were collected for documentation and further agromorphological
investigation. The resulting data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Shannon-Wiener diversity
index, ANOVA, Chi-square test, Student's T-Test, Paired T-Test, Wilcox Sum Rank Test, Tukey test and
Mann-Whitney U Test. Thirty accessions were collected and classified under seven farmer-named
varieties and one varietal admixture (a composite of two varieties). High varietal occurrence was
observed in Arsi zone (7) than Kefa (4). The Tepid moist mid-highland (M3) agroecologic zone of Arsi
had high varietal diversity (H’=1.5) while the Tepid sub-humid mid-highland (SH3) zone of Kefa came up
with the least varietal diversity (H’=0.9). Famers grow field pea on farm sizes ranging from 0.0125-0.5
ha. All the farmers interviewed preferred field pea, which the community mainly use for food and for
income generation, and farmers in H3-Arsi (100%), M3-Arsi (97%), SH3-Kefa (75%) and H3-Kefa
(17%) had preferences for field pea claiming that this crop is of high fodder quality. The farmers in H3-
Kefa extensively (69%) used the crop as honeybee forage and medicine for humans and livestock (67%)
compared to other study strata. Field pea was an important food item mainly consumed in the form of
SHIRO (sauce made of roasted and finely ground grains), KIKI (sauce made of split grains), NIFRO (boiled
grains), KOLLO (roasted grains) and ESHAT (green grains). Of the farmers interviewed in each
stratum,100% in SH3-Kefa, 89% in H3-Arsi, 56% in M3-Arsi and 44% in H3-Kefa grow field pea as a
sole crop, whereas, 56% and 31% of farmers in H3-Kefa and M3-Arsi intercrop field pea with faba bean.
This study has shown the essential role which traditional farmers play in the development and
maintenance of field pea landraces. Observations and discussions showed that improved varieties have
high market values and yield potentials than the local farmers’ varieties. The seven farmers’ varieties
were grouped into three clusters based on squared Euclidean distance (D2) values for which the
maximum distance was found between clusters two and three. The final germination percentages of all
collected field pea varieties were high (> 95%). The germplasm conservation, awareness raising of local
farmers, and further research on improvement on yield of the low yielding varieties are needed in order
to maintain the landrace diversity of field pea.
Key words: Agroecological zones, cluster analysis, ethnicity, ethnobotany, field pea, landrace,
strata
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Keywords
Agroecological zones, Cluster analysis, Ethnicity, Ethnobotany, Field pea, landrace strata