International Journal of Agriculture and Forestry 2014, 4(5): 402-407 DOI: 10.5923/j.ijaf.20140405.09 Participatory on Farm Evaluation of Improved Maize Varieties in Chilga District of North Western Ethiopia Daniel Tadesse * , Zenebe G. Medhin, Asrat Ayalew Faculty of Agriculture, University of Gondar, Ethiopia Abstract Participatory variety selection (PVS) trials were conducted in 2012 and 2013 in Chilga district of North West Ethiopia to evaluate the performance of improved maize (Zea mayz L.) varieties and to assess farmers’ criteria for maize variety selection for future maize improvement. Six improved varieties including the local check were used for the study at four farmer villages: Anguaba, Serako and Eyaho. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design and the trials were replicated over farmers’ field in the three villages. The results of analysis revealed that a significant difference among the varieties for most the agronomic traits recorded except for grain yield which was not significant. With regard to location, no significant difference was observed for the majority of the traits except plant height and ear height indicating similarity in agro ecologies of the three villages. The results also revealed that farmers’ preferences in some cases coincide with the researchers’ selection. However, in general farmers have shown their own way of selecting a variety for their localities. These parameters include earliness, drought tolerance, grain yield, vigorousity, husk cover, cob size, grain color and grain size. Hence, it is a paramount important to include farmers’ preferences in a variety selection process. Therefore, based on objectively measured traits, farmers’ preferences and the agro ecologies of the site the varieties BH-540 and BHQPY-545 are recommended in the study area. The variety BHQPY-545 should be given high attention by the responsible body since it has quality protein content besides having favored traits in the study area. Keywords Maize, Variety selection, Participatory, Grain yield 1. Introduction Maize (Zea mays L) is one of the worlds’ three primary cereal crops. It occupies an important position in world economy and trade as a food, feed and industrial grain crop. Maize holds a unique position in world agriculture as a food, feed for livestock and as a source of diverse, industrially important products. It accounts for 15-56% of the total daily calories of people in developing countries, and is currently produced on nearly 100 million hectares in 125 developing countries and is among the three most widely grown crops in 75 of those countries (FAOSTAT, 2010). Maize is the most important food security crop for Ethiopia, as it is for many other countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The average annual rate of growth in area and yield has been increasing over the last four decades (FAOSTAT, 2008). Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in Ethiopia, ranking second in area coverage after teff and first in total production (CSA, 2013). Varietal selections in maize in Ethiopian have usually been dominantly based on grain yield. Large numbers of * Corresponding author: dniltdss@yahoo.com (Daniel Tadesse) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/ijaf Copyright © 2014 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved breeding lines have been developed at various research stations and their performance evaluated across multi-location tests over several years and only a few varieties are so far identified. Varietal evaluation and decisions were only by researchers; however, this did not lead to the expected speed of variety release, or their dissemination afterwards. In addition, in developing new materials and extending them to farmers, classical plant breeding faces two major obstacles. First, new varieties can be disappointing to farmers where undesirable traits go undetected during the breeding process. Secondly, breeders necessarily discard many crosses and varieties during the selection process because of traits considered undesirable; however, these traits may actually be of interest to farmers. These illustrate the communication gap between researchers and farmers. The importance and complex nature of agricultural research demands coordinated effort among biological scientists, extension agents and farmers in order to ensure that appropriate technology is developed and promoted (Rao et al., 2004). Participatory plant breeding/selection has shown success in identifying more number of preferred varieties by farmers in shorter time (than the conventional system), in accelerating their dissemination and increasing cultivar diversity (Weltzien, E. et al., 2003). Therefore, adding