Upscaling of crowdsourced winner crop varieties in Ethiopia improved farmers’ varietal portfolio, farm resilience, and livelihoods

Improving farmers’ access to improved crop varieties lays fertile ground for enhancing agricultural production and livelihoods during the era of climate change. In recent years, however, farm diversification tends to decrease following the introduction of cluster farming system and the inclination towards growing commercial crop varieties. Farm diversification is key to attain diverse and nutritious diet as well as adapting to climate change. In response to climate change impacts and less efficient seed systems, farmers in the target regions should access diverse, adaptive, productive, and resilient crop varieties. This study was conducted to explore the potential of crowdsourced winner crop varieties in increasing farmers’ varietal portfolios, enhance production and productivity, and improvement of livelihood and farm resilience. The upscaling of crowdsourcing winner varieties was conducted from 2020 to 2023 main cropping seasons in ten districts of two regions of Ethiopia: Amhara and Oromia. Eighteen varieties: six durum wheat (DW), three finger millet (FM), seven faba bean (FB), and five chickpea (CP), were upscaled. Grain yield (GY) data were collected from sampled farms, and household surveys were conducted to assess the performance of the varieties and their impact on improving farmers’ seed portfolios, farm resilience, and livelihoods. This upscaling intervention has directly benefited over 4500 households and many more indirectly. Among the upscaled varieties, Mangudo from DW, Gora from FB, and Ejere from CP were adopted by 89%, 70%, and 67% of direct beneficiaries, respectively. The mean varietal portfolio was increased by 2.67, 2.43 and 2.67 for DW, FB, and CP, irrespectively, in the intervention districts. The highest GY was obtained from Mangudo (8.30 ton ha−1), Numan (3.20 ton ha−1), Ejere (2.57 ton ha−1), and Jabi (3.80 ton ha−1) from DW, FB, CP, and FM, respectively; each crop had a higher mean GY than the national average (3.11 ton ha−1 for wheat, 2.09 ton ha−1 for FB, 1.94 ton ha−1 for CP ton ha−1 and 2.57 ton ha−1 for FM for the year 2022). Participant farmers claimed that growing the upscaled varieties has improved farm productivity, reduce dependence on agrochemicals and consequently increased farm household income. The annual income of 40% of the beneficiary farmers accessed seeds of the three crops, was increased by 361.30–722.60 USD, with the majority earning between 310.00 and 930.00 USD. Overall, the livelihoods of beneficiary farmers improved, their farm resilience to biotic (diseases) and abiotic (drought and frost) stresses was enhanced, and the environmental impact of agrochemicals was reduced by growing varieties suitable for low input agriculture. The upscaled winner crop varieties helped the beneficiary farmers to improve their farm productivity, increase annual income, contribute to food and nutritional security, human and environmental safety, and resilience to climate change-related stresses. The upscaled varieties of the two pulse crops were used to restore soil fertility through crop rotation. The upscaling of these varieties to other parts of the country and other districts of the target regions might support the effort being made to attain food and nutritional security, health and environmental safety, and reduce agrochemical demand of the country, Thus, here we recommend further multiplication and dissemination of these varieties and the application of citizen science approach for other crops varieties.