Experiences of participatory research on natural resources management at Galessa

Galessa is located in Dendi wereda, western Shewa zone, in Oromia administrative region. The site is included as one of the eight researches benchmark locations of the African Highlands Initiative (AHI) project. AHI in collaboration with Holetta Agricultural Research Center and other stakeholders started on-farm research activities in 1997 to improve natural resources management in the highlands. Participatory rural appraisal techniques were used for the identification of problems and potential interventions. Priority problems identified and prioritized by farmers were deforestation, soil erosion, depletion of soil fertility, potato disease, feed and food shortages, poor diversification of crops, water shortage, high human population growth and low price of farm output. Several technologies have been tested on farmers' field with the participation of farmers, researchers and extension agents. As an entry point, five released varieties of potao (Awash, menagesh, Wechecha, Tolcha and Genet) were introduced and evaluated at four farmers' fields. Of these varieties Menagesh, Wechecha and Genet performed better and provided an average yield of 27, 18 and 16 t ha-1 over two seasons, respectively. Similarly a total of 50 forage accessions and species (Oats, Medics, Clovers, Hairy vetch, Common vetch, Narbon vetch) were introduced and evaluated for their adaptation and forage production for three seasons. On dry matter bases, Oats and Hiry vetch provided 17.3 and 7.1-ton ha-1 aboveground biomass, respectively, were as Medics varieties and trifolium species poorly adapted and produced an average aboveground biomass of less than 2 t ha-1. In addition to the research work, the capaicty of some researchers on participatory research methods has been enhanced. Farmers' participation at the designing stage of on-farm experiments is not very strong at Galessa. Therefore, researchers should be able to work with farmers starting from the planning stage of on-farm research activities.