International Research Journal of Arts and Social Sciences

Improving the livelihood of smallholder farmers through scaling out of Improved Chickpea Variety with Its Production Package in Vertisols Areas of North Shewa Ethiopia

Abstract

Dejene Mamo*, AbiroTigabie, Nigussie Kefelegn and Teklemariam Ayele

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is an ancient crop that belongs to the legume family and high-value pulse adapted to deep black soils in the cool semi-arid areas of the tropics, sub-tropicsas well as the temperate areas.The paper implied the contributions of pre scaling up of improved chickpea technologies in high potential chickpea growing areas. The activity was conducted in the vertisols areas of North Shewa of Amhara Region to increase farmers’ capacity in chickpea production and productivity. Moretina jiru woreda was selected purposively based on the production potentials of the areas. Two kebeles were selected from this woreda and more than 207 farmers were selected from both kebeles in area clustering approach. The improved variety of “Habru” and recommended bio-fertilizer were delivered for selected farmers in seed revolving base. Training was given for farmers and agriculture experts on chickpea seed and grain production package, post harvest handling, marketing and nutrition. Field day was arranged for wider demand creation and further promotion of the crop at the potential areas. Habru improved chickpea variety with improved agronomics practices gave yield up to 3.5tons per hectare at farmer’s field which is more than three folds compared to the local variety with local management. More than 61 ha of land were covered by the Habru chickpea variety with bio-fertilizer during the production year. The improved chickpea variety was accepted and attracted the attention of farmers, administrative bodies and union leaders during field day due to high productivity and large seed size for exporting purpose. As a result, farmers in Moretina jiru wereda and similar potential vertisols areas of the zone should use Habru variety of chickpea with integrated management option in order to increase their chickpea production and generate more income for their livelihood as well as for home consumption to improve family nutrition status.

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