Abstract

The Maize is one of the most important cereal crops in terms of area coverage, the volume of production, and its economic importance regarding food security in Ethiopia. Participatory on-farm demonstration and evaluation of lowland maize varieties were conducted with their full packages at Melokoza district and Basketo Special district, Southern Ethiopia. A gender-inclusive farmer research group (FRG) was formed in each kebele before the start of demonstration work. Capacity-building training was delivered to FRG members and extension agents on maize agronomic practices. A single plot design (side-to-side) was used on the 10m*10m size of the area for each variety (MH130 and MH140) on each selected farmer land and farmer training center (FTC). Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools such as pair-wise and direct matrix ranking methods were adopted during technology demonstration and evaluation. At physiological maturity, farmers’ field day was organized and technology was promoted through using different media outlets. Averaged across locations, the grain yield of MH130 and MH140 varieties were 49.3 Qt ha^-1 and 42.75 Qt ha^-1, respectively. The MH130 variety has a 22.1% higher economic benefit than the MH140. Moreover, MH130 was ranked first in terms of drought tolerance, yield, pest and disease resistance, earliness, seed size, plant height, and marketability. Therefore, MH130 was recommended for further scaling up in the study area and other similar agro-ecologies.