On-farm Evaluation and Pre-extension Demonstration of Elephant grass (Pennisetum purpureum) Varieties in Mixed Farming Systems of West Arsi zone, Ethiopia

On-farm evaluation and pre-extension of elephant grass varieties (Zehone-02 and Zehone-03) were conducted in a mixed farming system in two districts (Shashemene and Wondo) in the West Arsi zone Oromia regional state in Ethiopia. Two representative peasant associations were selected from each district based on forage production potential and accessibility to field monitoring and visits. Ten farmers willing to accept and disseminate technology were purposefully selected from each peasant association and grouped into farmer research groups. In each farmer research group, four hosting farmers were selected, with the rest being participant/visiting farmers in each kebele. Hosting farmers were selected based on their ownership of suitable and sufficient land to accommodate trials, proximity to roads to facilitate the chance of being visited by many stakeholders, ability to manage planted crops, and willingness to share their knowledge and experience with others. One potential farmer training center in each district was used as a trial and demonstration site as well as a source of planting material for the future. Two elephant grass varieties (Zehone-02 and Zehone-03) were evaluated and visited at the farmers’ training center with a plot size of 10 m × 10 m in each district. The number of tillers per plant, plant height at harvest, total fresh biomass yield, and total dry matter yield were all recorded in the second year of planting, whereas the plant survival rate was noted in the first. The findings showed that the plant survival rate, number of tillers per plant, and plant height at harvest did not significantly differ between the two tested varieties. In terms of forage yield, Zehone- 02 gave a higher amount of total fresh biomass yield (44.05 tons ha-1) and (12.71 tons ha-1) total dry matter yield, while Zehone-03 produced (37.20 tons ha-1) and (10.66 tons ha-1) total fresh biomass yield and total dry matter yield at the study site. Based on the performance of the varieties and visiting farmers’ feedback, further large-scale scaling of the two varieties should be conducted in the study area and areas with similar agro-ecologies.