Participatory Variety Selection of Improved Cotton (Gossypium Hirsutum L.) Varietiesin North Western Gondar, Ethiopia

Participatory variety selection (PVS) of cotton was conducted in 2016 and 2017 main cropping season at Metema and Tach-armachiho. The experiment was done with an objective of evaluating the performance of varieties participating with farmers, and thereby to identify the most important farmers’ criteria for future improvement work. Eight released varieties were evaluated. The trial was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. here was significant difference among varieties for seed cotton yield, lint yield and some of the other traits. The varieties Mian-01(2829.9 kg/ha), Sisikuk-02 (2584 kg/ha) and Ionia (2422.7 kg/ha) gave superior seed cotton and - lint yield over the standard check Deltapine-90 (1988.9 kg/ha). The farmers showed priority for both qualitative and quantitative traits. In both Metema and Tach-armachiho, farmers identified eight traits as the best criteria of selection. These were early maturity, size of bolls, number of bolls, height, branching habit, softness, stretching ability and disease tolerance. According to those criteria’s, farmers’ selection result was in accordance with seed cotton yield and lint yield analysis results. Whereby, the high yielder varieties (Mian-01, Sisikuk-02 and Ionia were selected by farmers for its ability to mature early, larger size of bolls and uniformly. These three varieties showed higher performance for yield, and on top of that, were ranked top based on farmer’s selection. Therefore, the varieties are recommended for cultivation in the high potential area ofthe North Western Gondar and similar agro ecologies. Moreover, our future cotton improvement program should target on developing varieties that fulfill farmers’ preferences.