Productivity Gap and Profitability Analysis of Field Pea Under Front Line Demonstration in Selected Districts of Western Oromia, Ethiopia

The activity aims to demonstrate and evaluate field pea technology in selected districts of Jimma Arjo and Chaliya of Western Oromia. Accordingly; Jirraaf variety was planted along with a standard check Jiidhaa on adjacent plots of 10m*10m each, adhering to all agronomic recommendations. At maturity, participatory variety evaluation was done using important traits set by the farmers to select the best variety, selected Jirraaf first. Among the other traits listed, yield, disease tolerance, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and seed color, were the first five most importantly considered and ranked traits by farmers to evaluate the best field pea variety Mean yield of 21.33 qt haand 16.29; respectively, for Jirraaf and Jiidhaa varieties (p˂0.05); Jirraaf exhibited 30.93%yield advantage over Jiidhaa variety. Technology gap and technology index of 5.26 qt and 19.78% while 7.98 qt and 32.88%; respectively, were for Jirraaf and Jiidhaa varieties; confirmed more feasibility of Jirraaf to the farmers. Further, net gain and cost-benefit ratio of 235,460 ETB per haand 11.48 while 174, 980 ETB per haand 8.53; respectively, were for Jirraaf and Jiidhaa varieties, more profitability of Jirraaf variety Hence; Jirraaf variety has met the farmers’ need it is vital recommending to scale up of the variety with its full package to the farmers in the study area and other areas with similar agro-ecologies in the future.