ABSTRACT
Chickpea is one of the most important food grains in the diets of Ethiopian people. Ethiopia is the largest producer of chickpea in Africa. Farmers grow traditional, low-yielding and disease- and pest-susceptible varieties and ranked them, despite the fact that several high yielding, disease-resistant, pest-resistant and drought-tolerant varieties have been developed by the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). The results of the analysis of variance showed that varieties differ significantly in all the parameters considered, except for plant height. A participatory variety selection trial was conducted in the 2011 and 2012 cropping seasons. Five improved chickpea varieties and one local variety were evaluated with and without rhizobium inoculation for their adaptation and yield. At pod setting the varieties were evaluated by farmer's research and extension group (FREG) members, the district office of agriculture experts, development agents and researchers at Gondar Agricultural Research Center.
