Multi-traits mean performance and stability analysis, and farmer’s participatory variety selection of common bean Varieties in West Shewa, Ethiopia

Evaluating improved common bean varieties in specific agroecologies is a crucial activity to enhance the production and productivity of the crop. Participatory variety selection plays a vital role in adopting improved crop varieties into a new growing area. The aim of this study was to identify adapted, stable, disease resistant and farmer’s preferred varieties. The experiment was conducted at six farmer’s fields of two districts for two consecutive cropping seasons (2020 and 20121) in Western Shewa, Ethiopia. Five common bean genotypes were evaluated through a multi-environment trial (MET) carried out in 12 environments (6 locations for 2 years) using a complete randomized block design (RCBD) to select the best genotypes based on the multi-trait mean performance and stability index (MTMPS) and participatory variety selection (PVS). The combined likelihood ratio test (LRT) showed significant differences across environments, genotypes, and GEIs for all tested traits, except for the number of seed per pod (SPP). This finding showed genotypes SER119, and Nasir had satisfactory mean performances and stabilities across all environments. The participatory evaluation revealed that farmers assigned high importance to yield performance and disease resistance for field evaluation and marketability (seed color and size) for quality. In addition, they also ranked some traits, such as earliness and erectness, as important parameters for genotype selection. Accordingly, a SER119 genotype preferred by farmers, followed by Nasir and SER125 genotypes, which indicating excellent harmony between the genotypes selected with the MTPMPS and by farmers during the PVS. These suggest that farmers had deep knowledge to select and make decision of the preferred superior varieties compared to the inferior varieties. Thus, we concluded that farmers’ participation in the common bean genotype evaluation is very crucial for future variety adaptation and dissemination process to select the most suitable genotypes for production and adoption in productive areas.