International Journal of Plant Research 2019, 9(2): 19-22 DOI: 10.5923/j.plant.20190902.01 Participatory Variety Selection of Lentil (Lens culinaris M.) in Siltie and Hadiya Zones Mukerem Elias * , Shimelis Mohammed Southern Agricultural Research Institute, Worabe Agricultural Research Center, Worabe, Ethiopia Abstract Participatory variety selection trial was conducted in two districts namely of Siltie zone Silti site and Hadiya zone Lemo site of Southern Ethiopia, during 2013/14 to 2014/15 main cropping seasons with the objective of obtaining high yielding Lentil varieties and selecting farmers preferred varieties. Seven improved and one local lentil varieties were used for the experiment. Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications was used for the experiments. According to the result days to 50% flowering, days to 90% maturity, plant height, number of pod per plant, thousand seed weight and grain yield showed highly significant variation and days to 90% maturity and number of primary branches per plant had showed significant variation among the varieties. Denbi, EL-142, Assano and Local varieties had showed higher yield performance across locations. Alemaya, EL-142 and Derashe varieties selected by farmers at Silti site whereas at Lemo site Local, Alemaya and Derashe were selected by the farmers. Keywords Lentil, Participatory variety selection 1. Introduction Lentil (Lens culinaris M.) is an invaluable source of protein for the vast majority of Ethiopian people. It also maintains soil fertility through symbiotic nitrogen-fixation in association with Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. Viciae [1]. Lentil is one of the highland crops widely grown in Ethiopia. It is largely produced in the highland and semi-highland regions of the country mainly on clay soil [2]. The Ethiopian Export Promotion Agency reports that improved varieties yield 1.4–5.0 t ha -1 on research fields and 0.9–3.0 t ha -1 on farmers’ fields. Lentils are produced in the high altitude areas of Ethiopia. They are a winter crop, particularly important in Oromia and Amhara and also grown in parts of the SNNPR and Tigray regions. Small holder’s farmers grow the majority of Ethiopia’s lentils. Most producers follow traditional production techniques based on indigenous knowledge [3]. As CSA in, 2018 reported that out of total production area under cultivation, 119046.04 hectares of land is covered with Lentil and about 175143.56 t are produced with the productivity of 1.47 t ha -1 [4]. There are many improved varieties released by Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute. But in the study area farmers were still used local varieties. So participatory * Corresponding author: eliasmukerem@gmail.com (Mukerem Elias) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/plant Copyright © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Scientific & Academic Publishing This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ variety selection of lentil among those varieties in Siltie and Hadiya zones was conducted to achieve the following objectives. Objectives To identify adaptable variety of lentil in Siltie and Hadiya zones. To identify farmer’s preference among released lentil varieties by using participatory approaches. 2. Material and Methods 2.1. Description of the Study Area The study was conducted in Siltie zone (Silti wereda) and Hadiya zone (Lemo wereda). Siltie zone is one of the zones of southern nation nationality and people regional state (SNNPRS). The zone is located 172 km apart from Addis Ababa. Siltie is one of the central zones of the region with large plain land, mountainous area, highlands concerning the climate of the zone it has two different agro-climatic conditions, Dega and Woina-dega and consisting 37% and 63% respectively. The average temperature range from 12-26°C and the average annual rainfall ranges from 780-1818mm. Silti wereda is located about 26 km from the capital town of this zone. Lentil was produced in Siltie zone 129 hectares out of this 120 hectares of land were cultivated in Silti wereda in 2011 [5]. Hadiya zone is located about 232 km apart from Addis Ababa. Its capital town is Hosanna. Latitudinal and Longitudinal extension is roughly between 7°07’-7°92’N and 37°29’-38°13’E. Annual rainfall ranges from 801mm. to