Enhancing Production of Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.): Evidence from Demonstration and Participatory Evaluation of Improved Potatoes in Kellam and West Wollega Zones

Selection of appropriate varieties and quality seed to be planted is the most important steps in boosting agricultural production; failures to do so would result in loss of yield or market acceptability of crops. To ensure this demonstration of improved potato varieties were conducted in West and Kellam Wollega Zones of Oromia national regional state. Different participatory technology evaluations were employed to enable farmers to select the variety/varieties which fit their local conditions based on their own preference. The result obtained indicated that, the production of Belete variety can increase potato production by 56.26% and Gudane can increase potato production by 49.95% in Zones compared to the local practice. More importantly, farmers were enabled to select varieties based on their own criterion, Accordingly, the direct matrix ranking indicated Belete variety as their first choice with the total percentage of 42.32%, Gudane and Local second and third with total percentage of 38.62% and 19.05% respectively. Besides, the profitability analysis indicated higher profit was obtained from Belete variety followed by Gudane. Therefore, based on the agronomic yield under farmers’ management conditions and farmers’ preference to the varieties, extension service providers and other concerned bodies should give attention to increasing the adoption of improved Belete and Gudane varieties in the target areas to boost potato production.

accessibility to improved variety and potato seed preparing mechanism. To reduce the barriers associated with potato production and helps farmers in accessing the technology and enhance the production of potato, a demonstration of potato technology with full package was conducted in West and Kellam Wollega Zones.

Objectives
To demonstrate and evaluate the productivity and profitability of Potato under farmers' management practices.
To bring synergy among researchers, Extension agents, farmers and other stalk holders in deciding strategies of popularization of improved potato technologies.
To create awareness on potato production package

Methodology 2.1 Description of the study area Seyo
Seyo district is located in the South Western part of Kellam Wollega zone. Astronomically the district is located between 8 0 12'-8 0 44' N and 34 0 41'-35 0 00' E. The district generally lies within an altitudinal range of 1300-2000masl. The major rainy seasons in the district include spring (April-May), summer (June-August) and autumn (September-November).

L/Asabi district
The district is located in West Wollega Zone of Oromia national regional state at the distance of 23km to West of Zonal capital Ghimbi. Astronomically the district lies between the coordinate of 9° 5′ 0″ N, 35° 50′ 0″ E. The topography of the district is characterized by ups and down trains with the altitude range of 1500-1900masl. The agroecology of the district falls with the range of midland agroecology with annual average rainfall of 1737.5mm year -1 .

Site and Farmers Selection
Two AGP-II beneficiary districts, one district from each zone (West and Kellam Wollega zones) were selected purposively based on being AGP-II beneficiary district, access to transport service and potato production potential. These districts were L/Asabi and Seyo. From each district, two representative model kebeles were selected based on their potential for potato production and accessibility. The FRG (Farmer Research Group) was established in each operational kebeles. The FRG formed was gender inclusive (male, female and youth group).
Before starting the field work, selection of experimental farmers was done in collaboration with researchers, extension agents and FRG members by taking in to consideration the farmers' interests and motivation, land ownership, and other important socio-economic aspects Table1

Materials used
Three varieties of potatoes namely Belete, Gudane and Local were used for this demonstration trial with recommended fertilizer rate of NPS 195 kg ha -1 and Urea 165 kg ha -1 .

Field design
The trial was carried out on selected farmer's fields in such a way that three varieties were planted side by side on equal sized plots of 10m x 10m with a gross area of 100m 2 . Sowing was done with spacing of 75 cm between rows and 30cm between tubers.

Method of data collection and analysis
Data were collected through observation of the field, checklist and focused group discussion. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 and illustration graph were done using sigma plot version 10.

Result and discussion 3.1 Yield performance of demonstrated potato varieties
The result obtained indicated that yield performance of Belete superiority over others varieties. This improved variety with improved management practices gave a tuber yield of 34.69-ton ha -1 followed by Gudane with magnitude of 33.29-ton ha -1 (figure 1). The local variety with improved management practices gave 22.2ton ha -1 . This is in line with the study of (Tessema et al., 2020;Jafar et al., 2020;Alo and Geremew, 2021;Hailu et al., 2020;Kassaw et al., 2021;Alo and Geremew, 2021b;Befikadu et al., 2019) which reported Belete superiority over other varieties. The yield of Belete was 26% lower of its potential yield (figure 1). The yield advantage of Belete and Gudane over the local variety which farmers were producing was 56.26% and 49.95% respectively. This could double the amount of potato production in West and Kellam Wollega Zones. The yield of Belete showed significant difference the district, while Gudane and local showed no significant difference (figure 2). The biggest tuber size (cm plant -1 ) was obtained from Belete variety, it was higher by 12.5% and 39.70% over Gudane and Local respectively (

Participatory varietal selection and farmers' preference of variety traits.
One of the most important parts of this demonstration was evaluation, selection and preference of farmers to demonstrated potato varieties. Farmers are strongly inclined to their likeness and dis-likeness (preference) to improved agricultural technologies. This preference will help them to give up less favored variety/crop and adopt favored variety/crop. This will in turn help the breeders to develop the desired quality traits of particular crop the outcome which is enhancing the rate of adoption of technologies as well reduce time and energy. Accordingly, different stakeholders participated on evaluation of these varieties at different time and selected the best trait of varieties according to their importance to them. Accordingly, a total of 126 (46 Female and 80 male) stake holders evaluated and selected varieties based on their own criteria. These criterions were: -Tuber yield, Disease tolerance, Tuber size, Cooling quality, Marketability and Early maturity. The research conducted by Asresie et al., 2015 reported Belete superiority for its yield, disease and insect tolerance, maturity, cooking quality and adaptability. Again Belete variety was selected as top variety by stakeholder by their own criteria (Merga and Dechassa, 2019;Jafar et al., 2020;Kolech et al., 2015). As shown in the above table farmers preferred and selected Belete variety as their first preference by all criteria of their choice followed by Gudane and local. Generally, farmers preferred and ranked Belete variety first with the total percentage of 42.32%, Gudane and Local second and third with total percentage of 38.62% and 19.05% respectively. Similarly, Belete variety was selected first for its tolerance to disease, higher yield over other six varieties demonstrated in Amhara region (Asresie et al 2015) and Gudane was selected as the good cooking quality by the study conducted by Hailu et al., 2020. Kassaw et al., 2021 also reported the Belete variety was the best in terms disease tolerance especially late blight disease. Total Cost 50400.9 46400.9 40400.9 10 Net benefit TR-TC 105684.1 102229.1 59454.1 Note: Cost were in Ethiopian Currency (1 USD = 32.084 ETB) Computed in January 2020 The net benefit that was gained from producing Belete variety was higher than the one that obtained from producing Gudane and local. The actual values obtained from each variety were 105684.1, 10229.1 and 68454.1 ETB for Belete, Gudane and Local respectively. This manifest that producing Belete variety makes more net benefit to farmers over Gudane and Local by the percent of 3.26% and 43.74% respectively.

Lesson learned
It is undeniable fact that farmers do have best indigenous knowledge of their environment and farming practice. Thus, demonstration of these potato varieties gave farmers, Researchers and agricultural experts considerable knowledge of potato production in different ways. Farmers aware and identified and selected/preferred potato variety which suited their actual condition while researchers got farmers preference to different traits of potato technologies which will provide the base for future technology generation.
Practical training that focused on agronomic practices, quality seed tuber, integrated disease management and postharvest handling techniques were given to the FRG members, development agents (DA) and to 7 Agricultural experts of each district. The training sessions were aimed at facilitating and assisting farmers to apply recommended agronomic practices and methods of constructing diffused light stores (DLS). A total of 185 stakeholders out of whom 58 were females and 127 males were participated on training with their percentage of 68.65% male and 31.35% of female respectively. From these training farmers got awareness on potato production and management as well as the way ones can store tubers for seed supply for wider potato production in target areas. Table: Training Participant

Conclusion
Demonstration of agricultural technology among the important mechanism of enhancing adoption of agricultural technologies generated by agricultural research. To hasten this, we conducted the demonstration of the two top performed varieties for validation under farmers' management condition. The overall result obtained from this study revealed that the superiority of Belete variety over Gudane and local varieties in terms of biological criterions and farmers preference. Gudane variety showed strong attribute by the total number of marketable tubers. Generally, the research indicated that 56% of additional potato tubers can be put into farmers' food basket by production of Belete and Gudane varieties which are very important for reducing food insecurity in the study area dominated by cereal-based food. Mover over this, the research is evidenced as the best crop for diversification of farmers' income with intended profitability. Therefore, this result implies that researchers, policymakers, extension service providers and other concerned bodies should be given attention to increasing the adoption of improved Belete and Gudane varieties (