Abstract

Lentil are among the major grain crops produced in Ethiopia with multipurpose advantages. However, it’s production and productivity at the study areas was majorly hindered and affected by the lack and low adoptions of improved varieties even though the demand for the crop is too high.Therefore,a field experiment was conducted at Jida, Debre Libanos, Yaya Gulele and Wachale districts of North Shewa Zone, Oromia region, Central Ethiopia with the objectives of evaluating improved Lentil varieties to recommend adaptable varieties for further demonstration and scaling. Seven improved lentil varieties including one local variety as a control were used to evaluate their performance. Grain yield and most of yield components were significantly affected by main effect of variety, environment and interaction of variety and environment. The results revealed that there were significant (P < 0.01) variations among the varieties for yield. Higher yield was recorded from Baredu and Debine varieties while low yield was recorded from Jiru. In addition, the stability analysis indicated that mean grain yield was more stable for both varieties across locations as compared to the other varieties. Also, in this study it was found out that there was 15.93 % and 8.06% increment of yield for Baredu and Debine variety (high yielder) as compared to the local variety. Therefore, those two varieties were recommended for production on the highlands of North Shewa Zone.

Keywords: Adaptability, GGE Biplot, Grain yield, Lentil, Stability and Varieties