Participatory varietal selection of bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes at Marwold Kebele, Womberma Woreda, West Gojam, Ethiopia

Participatory variety selection was conducted at Marwoled Kebele, Womberma Woreda, to select superior bread wheat varieties on farmers’ fields with their participations. Bread wheat variety called Kubsa (HAR1685) is the sole variety grown by farmers. Twelve alternative bread wheat varieties were evaluated under rainfed conditions using a randomized complete block design with three replications as grandmother trial and three farmers’ fields with one replication each as mother trial. In both trials, highly significant differences among the genotypes were observed in terms of plant height, spikelets per spike, hectoliter weight, thousand grain weights, leaf rust, yellow rust and days to maturity. HAR3730 (5.4 t ha-1), ETBW5518 (5.3 t ha-1), Plcafeor (4.8 t ha-1), ETBW5521 (4.7 t ha-1), ETBW5520 (4.4 t ha-1) and HAR1685 (4 t ha-1) were highest yielding over the check variety Kubsa (HAR1685) and selected by farmers and researcher. Developed participatory bread wheat varietal selections have solved many constraints related to farmers’ participations, set parameters, select superior varieties, evaluating the performance of better varieties, and identify better varieties and accelerating the dissemination of farmers’ selected varieties at Marwoled Kebele. Therefore, promotion of higher yielding selected cultivars is necessary at Marwoled Kebele to diversify wheat varieties to cope up with evolving disease pathogens and epidemic occurring in wheat system in the region. Key words: Participatory selection, bread wheat, varietal selection.