Bridging Yield Gap in Faba Bean Crop Production: Evidence from Large Scale Demonstration at Wolmera and Kolobo District in Central Highland of Ethiopia

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is believed to be one of the earliest domesticated legumes next to chickpea. It is an important pulse crop produced all over the world for both foods, feed & it serves as a cheap source of protein The main objective of this activity is to demonstrate improved faba bean technology through a cluster-based crop production approach. Large scale demonstration of faba bean technology is conducted at Wolmera, district and sheger city administration for two years (2021/22-2022/23). Districts, kebeles, and farmers are selected based on potential in faba bean production and farmers' willingness to implement technologies, with woreda agricultural office. 32 farmers and three improved varieties of Wolki, Dosha, and Numan used. 24.85 qts of seed is used to cover 12 hectares of land with a full package. The demonstrate result revealed that the mean, advantage and percent yield increase of the improved technologies across locations shows. The first year (2021/22) yield result showed that variety Wolki at Wolmera in Robgebeya kebele gives a mean grain yield of 28.5 qt/ha which is higher than the national and regional average yield 21.22 and 23.31 qt/ha respectively. In the second year (2022/23) faba bean LSD result showed that the average grain yield harvested across the districts is 27.3 qt/ha greater than the national, regional and zonal average mean grain yield. The maximum grain yield 38.9 qt/ha and an average yield of 32.5 qts/ha was obtained from Robegebeya Kebele. The data indicates that the actual yield from LSD is generally higher than the national and regional average yield in the country. Therefore, the study indicates that maximum faba bean yield can be achieved in fertile soil conditions, controlling diseases like faba bean gall diseases, and applying full crop recommendation packages.