Landrace (farmers Varieties) Diversity Of Field Pea (pisum Sativum L. Fabaceae) In Arsi Zone Of Oromia Region And Kefa Zone Of Snnpr Ethiopia

This study was undertaken to identify and document the landrace (farmers’ varieties) diversity along withrndescription of the morphological variability and ethnobotanical uses of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) inrnArsi and Kefa zones, Ethiopia. From each of these two study zones, three kebeles (lowest administrativernunit) were randomly selected within each stratum. The strata were first determined based on purposivelyrnsampled agroecological zones and ethnic groups or cultural zones. A total of 144 randomly selectedrngeneral informants and 24 purposively selected key informants were interviewed using a set of structuredrnquestionnaire and semi-structured interview guide, market survey and field observations. Voucherrnspecimens and seed samples were collected for documentation and further agromorphologicalrninvestigation. The resulting data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Shannon-Wiener diversityrnindex, ANOVA, Chi-square test, Student's T-Test, Paired T-Test, Wilcox Sum Rank Test, Tukey test andrnMann-Whitney U Test. Thirty accessions were collected and classified under seven farmer-namedrnvarieties and one varietal admixture (a composite of two varieties). High varietal occurrence wasrnobserved in Arsi zone (7) than Kefa (4). The Tepid moist mid-highland (M3) agroecologic zone of Arsirnhad high varietal diversity (H’=1.5) while the Tepid sub-humid mid-highland (SH3) zone of Kefa came uprnwith the least varietal diversity (H’=0.9). Famers grow field pea on farm sizes ranging from 0.0125-0.5rnha. All the farmers interviewed preferred field pea, which the community mainly use for food and forrnincome generation, and farmers in H3-Arsi (100%), M3-Arsi (97%), SH3-Kefa (75%) and H3-Kefarn(17%) had preferences for field pea claiming that this crop is of high fodder quality. The farmers in H3-rnKefa extensively (69%) used the crop as honeybee forage and medicine for humans and livestock (67%)rncompared to other study strata. Field pea was an important food item mainly consumed in the form ofrnSHIRO (sauce made of roasted and finely ground grains), KIKI (sauce made of split grains), NIFRO (boiledrngrains), KOLLO (roasted grains) and ESHAT (green grains). Of the farmers interviewed in eachrnstratum,100% in SH3-Kefa, 89% in H3-Arsi, 56% in M3-Arsi and 44% in H3-Kefa grow field pea as arnsole crop, whereas, 56% and 31% of farmers in H3-Kefa and M3-Arsi intercrop field pea with faba bean.rnThis study has shown the essential role which traditional farmers play in the development andrnmaintenance of field pea landraces. Observations and discussions showed that improved varieties havernhigh market values and yield potentials than the local farmers’ varieties. The seven farmers’ varietiesrnwere grouped into three clusters based on squared Euclidean distance (D2) values for which thernmaximum distance was found between clusters two and three. The final germination percentages of allrncollected field pea varieties were high (> 95%). The germplasm conservation, awareness raising of localrnfarmers, and further research on improvement on yield of the low yielding varieties are needed in orderrnto maintain the landrace diversity of field pea.rnKey words: Agroecological zones, cluster analysis, ethnicity, ethnobotany, field pea, landrace,rnstrata

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