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Large-scale Demonstration of Improved Bread Wheat Variety at Highland District of Guji Zone, Southern Oromia, Ethiopia
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Abstract
The production and productivity of bread wheat remain low among subsistence farmers in the highland areas of the Guji zone, despite the region’s agricultural potential. Current yields are insufficient to meet household food security requirements. This is mainly due to biotic and abiotic factors. Therefore, continuous intrusion of resistant and high-yielding bread wheat varieties into the production system is compulsory to sustain production in the highland of the Guji zone. Pre-extension demonstration of Miju, a recently released bread wheat variety for highland agroecologies, was conducted, creating demand among farmers for scaling up. Hence, this study was conducted on the basis of a cluster farming approach with the aim to popularize the Miju variety on a wider scale, evaluate the productivity and economic profitability of the Miju variety, appraise the feedback of farmers and stakeholders on the Miju variety, create awareness for farmers and stakeholders on the Miju bread wheat production technologies, and raise the study area bread wheat production and productivity. Ana Sora district was selected based on potential. A total of 44 gender inclusive farmers were clustered, having adjacent farmland of 20 ha. The seed was drilled by hand at a rate of 150 Kg with 0.2 m spacing between rows and a rate of 100 Kg NPS and 50 Kg N ha-1. Training and a field day were organized. The collected data was analyzed by simple descriptive statistics and narrating the qualitative explanation of farmers using a qualitative content analysis approach by summarizing the consensus made after FGD. Economic feasibility was calculated by BCR. An average yield of 26.55 Qt ha-1 was obtained with NB of 107,898.2 ETB ha-1 and 1.74 BCR. Therefore, farmers of the highland areas should use the Miju variety in a cluster farming approach for better management, enhance wheat production and productivity, income, and security of wheat and food.
Keywords
Food security; cluster approach; highland agroecology; large-scale demonstration; Miju variety
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How to cite this paper
Large-scale Demonstration of Improved Bread Wheat Variety at Highland District of Guji Zone, Southern Oromia, Ethiopia
How to cite this paper: Korji Dembi, Amare Girma, Kebede Basha. (2026) Large-scale Demonstration of Improved Bread Wheat Variety at Highland District of Guji Zone, Southern Oromia, Ethiopia. International Journal of Food Science and Agriculture, 10(2), 146-157.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/ijfsa.2026.06.004
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