A newly released forage oat (Avena sativa) variety "WAS" registered for the central highland areas of Ethiopia

Abstract

Fifteen oat accessions including the standard check (SRCP X 80Ab 2291) were tested for forage dry matter yield, herbage qualities, pest and disease reaction and other agro-morphological characteristics across three locations (Holetta, Jeldu, and Kulumsa) during the main cropping seasons of 2016-2018. Based on the overall performance, three superior accessions (CI-1589, CI-1506, CI-633) were selected and verified with the standard check at Holetta, Adaberga, and Kulumsa agricultural research centers and sub-site in 2018 cropping season. The candidate accession CI-1506 which produced better forage DM yield across locations and years was released. Combined analysis indicated that forage DM yield ranged from 15.5 to 18.6 t/ha with a mean of 16.6 t/ha. The released accession CI-1506 gave the highest DM yield followed by CI-1589 while CI-633 and the recently released standard check varieties produced comparable yields. The candidate accessions (CI-1589, CI-1506) had forage dry matter yield, crude protein yield, and digestible yield advantages over the standard check. The released accession has percent increase advantages of 18.5, 44.4, and 18.74% in DM yield, CP yield, and IVDMD yield over the recently released standard check variety, respectively. Among the accessions, the released variety named Was (CI-1506) had the highest forage dry matter yield, crude protein yield, and digestible yield advantages over the standard check and other candidate varieties. Moreover, the candidate accessions (CI-1589, CI-1506) had leaf to stem ratio, crude protein content, and in-vitro dry matter digestibility content advantages over the standard check. Similarly, the released variety Was (CI-1506) had a relatively better leaf to stem ratio (12.5%), CP (2.6%), and IVDMD (0.2%) advantages over the standard check variety (SRCP X 80Ab 2291). The national variety releasing committee evaluated the accessions at field conditions in October 2018. Based on their evaluation result, Oat variety Was (CI-1506) was officially released in November 2019 for production in the high altitude areas and similar agro-ecologies of the country. The pre-basic and basic seeds of the released variety Was (CI-1506) variety are maintained by feeds and nutrition research programs of Holetta Agricultural Research Center.