In spite of the wider area coverage, the national average yield of maize per hectare is low. The yield gap is attributed to a number of factors. Lack of sufficient knowledge and awareness of farmers on the production and benefits of the improved maize varieties with good agronomic practice and potential yield is a leading constraint. Demonstration of hybrid maize varieties is essential to alleviate these problems. Therefore, this study was undertaken to enhance the productivity of maize through demonstration of high yielding maize varieties with improved management practices at Meta district. It was conducted at Dursitu bilisuma kebele through farmers’ research group approach. A total of 9 trial Farmers were selected based on their interest and land ownership. Damote and BH661 maize varieties were provided to farmers with full packages. Each variety was planted on a plot size of 10mx10m/farmer, with seed rate of 25kg/ha and 75cm*25cm space between row and plant respectively. Likewise, fertilizer (NPS) was applied with rate of 100kg/ha. Training and field visit were organized to create fertile ground for dissemination of technologies through farmers and to evaluate performance of the varieties and share the lessons with different stakeholders. The average yield for Damote and BH661 is 54.69qt/ha and 41.83qt/ha respectively. The mean score for knowledge test before and after implementation is 3.65 and 5.95 respectively. These results indicate an improvement in the awareness and production of beneficiary farmers. Based on their criteria, farmers have preferred and ranked Damote variety as first. Therefore, it is better if effort is exerted for pre scaling up of these technologies.
Demonstration, Evaluation, Hybrid Maize, Knowledge test
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