Chocolate spot disease, caused by Botrytis fabae, is a major constraint that limits productivity of faba bean (Vicia faba) in Ethiopia. This is mainly due to lack of disease resistant genotypes from the locally adapted varieties. Therefore, the development of resistant faba bean varieties that are adapted to different agro-ecologies are important as it improves selection efficiency and reduce breeding time and cost. The study was, therefore, conducted to evaluate the effect of the genotype x environment interaction (GEI) for grain yield and chocolate spot disease resistance in 21 faba bean genotypes in six locations. A randomized complete block design with three replicates was used at each location. The additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and the genotype and (genotype x environment) (GGE) biplot analyses resulted in highly significant differences amongst genotypes, environments and GEI. The influence of the environment was far larger (61.4% contribution to the total variation observed) than the contributions from the genotypes (20.9%) and GEI (17.7%) In contrast, genotypes had the largest contribution (73.4%) to the variability observed for chocolate spot resistance. The site Kulumsa (E3) provided the best discriminating ability for the genotypes, while both AMMI and GGE biplot analyses identified six most stable and productive genotypes, and four genotypes with low chocolate spot severity but moderate stability. Overall, G14 and G5 with high mean yield, stable and moderate level of resistance at all locations are recommended as the best genotypes.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is an important legume crop used as a major source of dietary protein for subsistence farmers and of foreign currency for Ethiopia. However, yields have remained low, thus threatening food security. The objectives of this study were to assess major threats to faba bean production, determine farmers' varietal preferences and selection criteria, and assess farmers' perceptions of faba bean diseases. Data were collected from 240 households through a survey and participatory rural appraisal methodology. Major threats to faba bean production were chocolate spot disease, which was a persistent problem in the Ethiopian highlands, and lack of improved seed. Many farmers (>85%) recognised symptoms of chocolate spot disease but had various names for it. Disease severity was associated with growing susceptible local landrace varieties which resulted in low yields (0.56 to 2.8 t ha -1 ). About 66.4% of the farmers preferred local landraces for their adaptability to the environment, tolerance to frost, early maturity, good food taste and straw yield, while improved varieties grown by 10% of the farmers were preferred for high grain yield and bigger grain size. Therefore, opportunities exist to improve the preferred landraces for yield and disease resistance through breeding.

This study was conducted to estimate better-parent and mid-parent heterosis for grain yield and chocolate spot resistance and to determine the direct and indirect effects of yield components on yield of faba bean (Vicia faba L.) in Ethiopia. Ten genetically diverse inbred lines were crossed in a full diallel to produce 90 F 1 progenies. The parents and their 90 F 1 progenies were evaluated in a 10 x 10 alpha lattice design with two replications at three locations. Data were analyzed using the Gardner and Eberhart's analysis II and PATHSAS using SAS program. The maximum heterosis for grain yield (t ha Path coefficient analysis showed a significant direct effect of the number of nodes that had pods, plant height and total biomass on grain yield. However, general chocolate spot disease score (GDS) and relative area under disease progress curve (rAUDPC) had negative direct effect and significant negative correlation with grain yield. These results are useful to faba bean breeders for indirect selection of grain yield during the early segregating generation when yield tests cannot be conducted.

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is a high value crop in Ethiopia and has versatile uses. The national faba bean breeding program concentrates on the three major traits (grain yield, disease resistance and seed size) of the crop for varietal release for commercial production. Hence, ten faba bean genotypes were evaluated at Adet, Areka, Bekoji, Haramaya, Holetta and Jimma during the main cropping seasons of 2018 and 2019 using a randomized complete block design with four replications with the objectives to select the genotype with best performance in terms of important agronomic traits like grain yield, disease resistance, large seed size and other desirable agronomic traits for high potential production areas in Ethiopia. The combined analysis of variance across locations revealed that there is highly significant (P < 0.01) variation among the tested genotypes for grain yield, 1000-seeds weight, number of pods per plant, and days to 90% physiological maturity. The genotype EH011089-3 showed better performance than the tested genotypes having comparable grain yield performance (3803 kgha-1) with the two standard checks, Numan and Gora (3790 and 3897 kgha-1, respectively) while it had the highest 1000-seeds weight (1065 g) compared to the two standard checks, Numan and Gora (937 g and 786 g, respectively), i.e., 13.7% and 35.5% advantage, over the two standard checks, respectively. Additionally, EH011089-3 had better resistance for chocolate spot and rust diseases. Therefore, EH011089-3 was the best over the tested varieties and breeding lines. Genotype EH011089-3 is recommended for varietal release for commercial production all over in Ethiopia.