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

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