Warm Season Vegetable

The research of warm season vegetable crops was started by the then National Horticulture Research Station at Adama in 1969 to boost vegetable production in the country. The research is focusing on tomatoes, onions and capsicums as high priority; whereas, true seed shallot, snap bean, Chinese cabbage, Pak choi, okra, amaranthus, squash, watermelon, cucumber, jute mallow and eggplant as medium priority crops. A number of genotypes have been collected, introduced, tested, screened and released, recommend and registered for various purposes. The research findings were published on different publications namely: journals, guidelines, manuals, proceedings and leaflets. Among the vegetable crops; eleven tomatoes, seven onion and ten pepper, two true seed shallot, two snap beans, two Chinese cabbage, two pak choi, two amaranth, two okra and one summer squash varieties along with their management practices were released. A sum of 107 varieties of 15 vegetable crops were verified and registered in collaboration with seed business companies. The seed yield potential of released major vegetable crop varieties have been tested and recommended. Agronomic recommendations were identified for seeding rate, sowing date, planting methods, spacing, bulb size for seed, fertilizer application, irrigation practices and production season. From one hundred to one hundred fifty germplasms of major vegetable crops have been maintained and enhanced every year. Annually, 250–300 kg breeder seeds have been multiplied and distributed to different stakeholders. Read More

Different vegetable types are grown across Ethiopia and contribute substantially to the national economy and to the income of farmers. The vegetable improvement program was started in 1969 by then Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR) at Nazareth Research Station. Efforts on vegetable improvement over the last fifty years concentrated on introduction and screening and mass selection of genotypes from local and exotic sources. Recently, local hybridization program has been started to develop high yielding hybrid varieties for various purposes and production systems. From varietal introduction and selection different cultivars were released for wider production. Currently, genotypes of tomato, Capsicum, and onion are under evaluation. In the last 5 decades 20 tomatoes, 9 capsicum, 9 onions, 2 true seed shallot, 2 snap beans, 2 Chinese cabbage, 2 Pakchoi and 2Amaranth varieties were released. In collaboration with domestic and international private seed companies, high yielding, better quality and less susceptible to different diseases than the existing released/registered varieties were evaluated and 93 hybrid varieties of 15 vegetable crops have been registered. Besides variety development, significant efforts have been made in availing production technologies including seed production of vegetable crops. These efforts assisted in improving the livelihood of farmers. Various agronomic experiments were conducted and recommendations have been given for different vegetable crops on seeding rate; sowing date for bulb and seed production, planting methods, spacing, bulb size for seed, fertilizer application, irrigation practices and production season. To meet the growing demand of the sector; agronomic experiments, morphological and molecular characterization of the existing germplasm for different types, desirable traits, different stresses and agro-climatic regions are needed. In addition, strong systematic germplasm collection and conservation of local collections need to be made to assess the potential of local/indigenous materials. There is a great scope for increasing the production and productivity of vegetable crops through strong research support and collaborative efforts of different stakeholders. Read More

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