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Location
The center is discharging its country level responsibilities as a coordination or center of excellence for a number of programs and projects. MARC is geographically located at a latitude of 8° 24’ N, longitude of 39° 21’ E, and an average altitude of 1550 meter above sea level. It is situated at about 107 km southeast of Addis Ababa, the capital, and 17 km from Adama on the way to Assela. It has two sub-centers located at Mieso and Negelle Arsi. The center has two small testing sites Gidara in Fentale and Tiribereti in Boset districts` Gara (Mt.) Amsalu mountain- in Adulala-Hate in Adama serves as a Green Legacy in natural resource rehabilitation and afforestation under the auspices of the center.
Climate
Melkassa Agricultural Research Center (MARC) has a historical observed weather data of rainfall, temperature (maximum, minimum, dry, wet and soil at different depths), wind (speed and direction), solar radiation, sunshine hour and relative humidity since 1977. Melkassa is categorized under a semi-arid climate; and has a bimodal pattern in seasonal rainfall distribution, which is from mid-February to mid-May (known as Belg in Amharic) and from June to September (known as Kiremt in Amharic). The annual rainfall ranges from 481 to 1320 mm and, on average; it receives 827 mm of precipitation annually. The mean rainfall during the main cropping season (June to September) is 436 mm with a moderate seasonal variability (coefficient of variability 19.3 %) while the average rainfall during February to May (Belg) is 256 mm with coefficient of variability of 46 %. Temperature is highest in May-June and lowest in November-December with annual mean of 21.6 °C. May and December are the warmest and the coldest months of the year with 31.2 °C and 11°C, respectively.
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Soil
The dominant soil type is Andosol of volcanic origin with pH ranging from 7–8.2. The textural class of the soil is loam except few places with sandy clay loam and silt loam. The highest pH (8.2) was recorded near to the water-pumping site of the center. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) of the soil ranges from medium to high level (20.0–37.8 meq/100). Exchangeable K level of the soil was 2.05–4.03 meq/100g indicating that a response to K fertilizer is likely low for cereals. This is, however, dependent on the demand of the crops. Organic carbon (0.778–1.496%) and total nitrogen (0.067–0.154%) contents are not sufficient to fulfill nitrogen demand of the plant and to maintain soil nitrogen dynamics stable. Hence, for higher grain and biomass yield, seasonal application of nitrogen fertilizer is advisable.
Annual Mean Rainfall
Annual mean rainfall, minimum and maximum temperature, MARC.
Major agro-ecology for research and outreach
MARC is involved in conducting research mainly in the Central Rift Valley and bordering areas. The environment in these areas ranges from dry to sub moist and stretches from Shewa-Robit in the Northeast to Shashamene and Siraro in the south, Dodota and Sire in the southeast, Mojo in the west and Mieso in the east edges, which is characterized as a representative of semi-arid areas where agricultural production and its sustainability is hampered by a number of natural constraints. Of these, short and unpredictable rainy season, intensive rainfall intercepted with intermittent drought, soil with low water infiltration capacity and high erosion risks. For an efficient, effective and impact-oriented research MARC employs a group cluster-based approach based on a set of criteria within its major outreach areas. Proximity to the center, potential of the areas for MARC mandated crops production, availability of FTC with sufficient land and committed extension workers, access to irrigation water (for irrigated horticulture), accessibility during the rainy season and distance from the district town are some of the norms.
Our Recent Programs
Sorghum Improvement
The national sorghum research program is coordinated from MARC to improve the quality and productivity of the crop. The program has released thirty-one sorghum varieties (17 for the dry lowland, 6 for highlands, and 8 for intermediate agroecologist). From the total released sorghum varieties, five of them are hybrids. In addition, the program released five finger millets and one pearl millet varieties.
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Lowland Pulse
Pulses are important sources of food for smallholder farmers and export commodity for Ethiopia. The program undertakes research on common bean, mung bean, cowpea and pigeon pea. Thirty-five common bean varieties of different market classes, that are high yielding and disease resistance, six cowpeas, two mung beans, one pigeon pea and one adzuki bean varieties were released for production.
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Agricultural Engineering
Agricultural Implements Research Center (AIRIC), now called Agricultural Engineering Research Department, was one of the national commodity programs under EIAR established to carry out development and testing of farm tools and equipment appropriate for farmers’ agricultural condition Ethiopia . The research department has two functional national research programs, i.e., Farm Power and Field Machinery research program and Post-harvest and Processing Engineering research program.
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Tropical and Subtropical Fruit
Tropical and subtropical fruits research was started by the then National Horticulture Research Station in Adama town in 1969 to introduce and adapt, and generate fruits technologies, knowledge and information. The research program at MARC has focused on high priority fruits including avocado, banana, citrus (sweet orange, mandarin, lime, lemon, grapefruit, and pomelo), grapevine, mango, and papaya.
Dryland and irrigated maize
Eight open pollinated (OPVs) and four hybrids (conventional and quality protein maize) have been released by maize project for commercial production in drought stress areas of Ethiopia. All of these cultivars were primarily selected from introductions from CIMMYT. The project is discharging the research of maize those are performing the best under rainfed and irrigated conditions.
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Technology Multiplication and Seed
Technology multiplication and seed research undertakes early generation technology multiplication and supply to different stakeholders and study the seed quality of different seed crops produced by formal and informal seed producers and working on the internal seed quality control. Early generation seeds of improved sorghum, maize, common bean, mung bean and warm season vegetable crops varieties have been multiplied and supplied.
Warm Season Vegetable Crops
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.
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Plant Biotechnology
Plant Biotechnology conducts experiments particularly on tissue culture techniques that were commenced at MARC since 2003 and strives to support and enhance the existing crop improvement research by introducing or generating advanced technologies in the research system. The experiments were primarily focused on optimization of in vitro protocol for micropropagation of horticultural crops mainly bananas and micro grafting of elite citrus cultivars for virus cleaning.
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Learn MoreOur Recent Programs
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Sericulture Research
Sericulture research conducts both basic and applied research on silkworms specifically on two silkworm races namely, Eri silkworm (Samia cynthia ricini) and mulberry silkworm (Bombyx mori). National Sericulture Research program was established in 2001 at MARC with the general objective of improving silk production and productivity in Ethiopia through effective and sustainable technology and information generation, adoption and dissemination. Since the establishment of the research program, the sericulture research has been introducing races of silkworms from major producing countries and also feed plant materials have been collected locally and introduced from abroad for evaluation.
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Food Science and Nutrition
The research department plays an important role on variety release, utilization, and processing of crops. As a result, simple and cost-effective food preservation techniques have been developed and disseminated to many farmers and partners. In addition, a number of research outputs such as physico-chemical, functional properties, and novel nutritious food products from cereals and pulses as well as preservation and processing of fruits and vegetables have been released.
Livestock Feeds and Nutrition
Livestock feeds and nutrition research program at MARC was established in 2000’s to assess the feed resource bases, improve the productivity of cultivated forage crops in arid and semiarid agro- pastoral and pastoral areas through generation and dissemination of better performing livestock feeds and nutrition technologies. Since its establishment, the program has assessed feed resource base and management (feed resource assessment, contribution of crop residues and other feeds from croplands, feed deficit management strategies of households, practice of conserving and purchasing feeds and rangeland condition) in the arid and semiarid MARC mandate areas.
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Soil Fertility and Health Management
The SFHM research at MARC is mandated to generate, develop and adapt SFHM technologies focusing on the needs of the overall agricultural development and its beneficiaries in MARC mandated areas, to verify and demonstrate SFHM technologies on farmers’ field, and to prepare and disseminate SFHM related manuals/guidelines to be used by Subject Matter Specialists, Development Agents and farmers. The SFHM research of MARC has characterized the soils of the center, sub centers and its vicinity. The research program has made fertilizer recommendations for different crops based on soil test and crop response study results.
Agricultural Economics
The research department has been instrumental in guiding technology generation, dissemination and utilization. So far, different research projects/activities have been conducted in the areas of technology adoption, value chain analysis/markets and institutions, production economics, seed sytem, farming systems and sector/sub-sector analysis. Through these studies, enablers and barriers of technology adoption, market participation/commercialization, seed systems, production and productivity have been documented and availed to beneficiaries namely policy decision makers, researchers, and producers, in A the form of journal articles, research reports, book chapters and proceedings.
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Climate and Geospatial
CMIP5 model ensemble-based average percentage change of rainfall over Ethiopia for the near-term (2025 –2049) relative to the baseline period (1975–2005) for the RCP2.6 (top right), RCP8.5 (top left) b) monthly precipitation change relative to baseline period (bottom right) c) rainfall change in annual precipitation for all models (bottom right).
The research achievements of Climate and Geospatial Research of MARC started from conducting informative activities on the general pattern of current climate of specific locations (CRV, Tigray, Amhara and SNNPR) on one hand and, their implications on identified crops production (coffee, sorghum, wheat, maize and lowland pulses) on the other.
A large number of weeds of economic importance infesting different crops and cropping systems in MARC mandate areas have been collected and identified. These include
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- Parasitic weeds (Orobanche ramosa L., Striga asiatica, Striga hermonthica),
- Sedges (Cyperus rotundus, Cyperus esculentus),
- Grass weeds (Digitaria ternata, Digitaria abyssinica, Cynodon dactylon, Sorghum arundenanceum, Echinocloa colona)
- Broad-leaved weeds (Launea cornuta, Portulaca oleracea, Tribulus teresteris, Commelina benghalensis, Parthenium hysterophorus, Xanthium abyssinicum, Datura stramonium, Tagetes minuta, Galinsoga parviflora Cav., Amaranthus hybridus, Guizotia scabra and Argemone mexicana).
Agricultural Entomology
Research work on arthropod pests of crops at Melkassa Agricultural Research Center (MARC) started with the establishment of the center as Nazareth Horticultural Crops Research Station in the early 1970s.
Learn MoreSince then, entomological research activities on the mandate crops of MARC including warm season vegetables, tropical and subtropical fruits, tall cereals (sorghum and maize), and lowland pulses mainly common bean have been conducted. Insect pest survey, crop loss assessment and management studies have been conducted on key insect pests of these crops.
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