MULISA FAJI DIDA
Animal Feed and Nutrition Research Division
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Ethiopia
*(e-mail : mulisa.faji2016@gmail.com)
(Received : 4 November 2021; Accepted : 27 December 2021)
SUMMARY
A study was carried out to evaluate four Vicia accessions from three species for forage biomass yield performance under two environmental conditions of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Western Ethiopia. The evaluated Vicia species and accessions were one V. benghanlensis (6798), two V. villosa (6213 and 6792) and one V. sativa, (5172) accessions. The experiment was conducted at Tongo and Assosa Forage Research Station of Assosa Agricultural Research Center and the locations were purposively selected to represent highland and mid-altitude agro-ecologies, respectively. The experiment was set up with a randomized complete block design with three replications. Main effects differences among genotypes and environments significantly influenced leaf to stem ratio (P < 0.05) and plant height (P < 0.01), while the forage dry matter yield was significantly (P < 0.01) influenced by the environment. Tongo had the highest forage dry matter yield (P < 0.01) compared to Assosa. Plant height was significantly different among accessions at both locations and the shortest plant height at forage harvest was recorded for V. sativa 5172 at both locations. At Tongo, mean dry matter yield was significantly different (P < 0.05) among accessions, but not at Assosa (P > 0.05). V. benghanlensis 6798 gave a higher total dry matter yield followed by
V. villosa 6792 at Tongo.
Key words: Genotype, environment, G x E, agronomic traits, vicia accessions