Pre-extension Demonstration of Under-limed Improved Food Barley Variety in Burka Jiren Community Watershed of Buno Bedele Zone, Southwestern Oromia, Ethiopia

The pre-extension demonstration trial was conducted during the 2024 main rainy season in Burka Jiren Community Watershed of Gechi District, BunoBedele Zone. The objectives were to evaluate grain yield, economic profitability and collect farmers’ feedback. The study evaluated lime treated against untreated Adoshe variety across three demonstration sites (at upper, middle and lower watershed). Data were collected on yield, cost incurred, profit gained, and farmers’ feedback. The analysis involved descriptive statistics, independent t-test, and benefit-cost ratio. The descriptive analysis result revealed that, the mean grain yield of 26.7 and 13.6 qt ha<sup>-1</sup> were obtained from lime treated and untreated Adoshe variety respectively. There was statistically significant mean grain yield difference at (P<.01) between the treated and untreated Adoshe yield with 96% yield advantage over the untreated one. The lime treated Adoshe variety was also preferred by the farmer research group members due to high number of productive tillers per plant, spike length, number of seeds per spike, big seed size and grain yield. Likewise, higher net benefit of 97,062 ETB ha<sup>-1</sup> was obtained from lime treated Adoshe variety with benefit-cost ratio 2.5 compared to untreated one. This implies, farmers can recover all the incurred costs and gain an additional 2.5 ETB for every 1 ETB they invest when using lime treated food barley variety. The overall result showed that lime treated food barley variety had a significant yield advantage, net benefit, and were preferred by farmer research group members, leading to the recommendation for scaling up this technology in similar agro-ecologies.