Farmers’ participatory forage cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) variety selection in the mid Rift Valley areas of Ethiopia application of hierarchical decision making model

Abstract

Cowpea is one of the most important crops of dryland farmers with wide geneticdiversity for growth habit; biomass and bean seed yield, resistance/ tolerance to bioticand abiotic stresses, and responsiveness to inputs. In the present study, farmers’participatory forage cowpea variety evaluation and selection was carried out (using ahierarchical decision making Multi Criteria Analysis model) at three districts (Adama,Boset and Mieso) in the mid Rift Valley areas of Ethiopia. Farmers compared and ratedsix selection criteria and four candidate forage type cowpea varieties pairwise. Theresults showed that, on average, farmers rated resistance / tolerance to drought as mostimportant selection criterion followed by higher bean seed and biomass yields. Amongthe candidate varieties, farmers rated variety ILRI-9334 as better in terms of resistance/tolerance to diseases, insects and droughts. On the other hand, variety ILRI-11110 wasrated as early maturing, whereas variety ILRI-9352 was described as high bean seed andbiomass yielder. However, based on the aggregated final weights, among others, thecowpea candidate variety ILRI-9352 was rated as the best genotype. Based on this it canbe concluded that, though local level differences might justify needs for specializedvariety, future research on cowpea by and large, need to prioritize dual purpose varietiesthat combine drought resistance and high seed cum forage biomass yield.