Agriculture and Food Sciences Research

A faba bean (Vicia faba L.) variety named Ashebeka with a pedigree designation of EH01075-4 has been released in 2015 by Kulumsa agricultural research center in Ethiopia. The variety is best adapted to waterlogging vertisol environments of Ethiopia with altitudes ranging from 1900 to 2800 meters above sea level. The variety was developed through hybridization between N86108-5 and BPL1297-1. The candidate variety has been tested at four locations (Arsi Robe, Sagure, Ambo and Inewari) representing major waterlogging vertisol environments of the country during 2012 and 2013 main cropping seasons making eight test environments. The variety is mainly characterized by its higher grain yield and heavier seed size (885g 1000 seeds-1) than the standard checks and all the remaining genotypes in the trail. The variety Ashebeka showed 34% seed size advantage over Hachalu, the popular best standard check recently released for water logging vertisol production areas. Based on selected a parametric method that includes yield rank and stability, Ashebeka showed better performance stability across the test environments and over years than the standard checks, Hachalu and Walki. The variety showed better overall agronomic performance, and moderately resistance to major faba bean disease including root rot, rust and chocolate spot than the standard checks in the trial, and could be cultivated across mid to high altitude agro-ecologies with water-logging vertisol conditions of the country.