Evaluation of Improved Sesame Varieties under Rain Fed Condition in Ari and South Om Zone, South Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the famous and major producers of sesame in sub-Saharan Africa .Ethiopian sesame is among the highest quality in the world. In South Omo and Ari Zones the yield of Sesame was limited by the lack of improved varieties for a certain location, as well as other biotic and abiotic factors. The experiment was conducted in Ari Zone and South Omo Zone of South Ethiopia for two growing areas in Debube Ari District (Jinka Agricultural research center site) and Malle Districts, Beneta keble in 2023/24 under rain fed condition with the objective of evaluating, recommending, adaptable and high yielding sesame varieties for the growers in the study area of Ari Zone and South Omo Zone. Thirteen improved sesame varieties were used in the experiment and evaluated using a randomized block design with three replications. The SAS software program was used to conduct data analysis of variance on days to flowering ,days to maturity plant height, length of capsule bearing zone, capsule length, number of capsule per plant, number of primary branches per plant, number of seed per capsule, grain yield and thousand seed weight. The combined analysis of variance result showed that, there were statistically significant differences among the varieties for the traits of days to maturity, plant height, number of capsule per plant, days to flowering, length of capsule bearing zone, capsule length, number of primary branches per plants, number of seed per capsule and grain yield considered in this study and none significant differences among the varieties for the traits of thousand seed weight. The combined analysis of location interaction variety were none significant for all traits .The highest average mean yield of 1163.5 kg ha^− 1 was obtained from Gonder − 1 variety followed by Obsa 1142.1 kg ha^− 1 variety. These two varieties had a yield advantage of 61.02% and 58.05% over standard check respectively. While, variety Hachalu (591.7 kg ha^− 1) had the lowest combined mean grain yield than from the other evaluated varieties. As a result, Gonder-1 and Obsa varieties were recommended for further demonstration for farmers’ investors, agro-pastoralists and sesame producers under rain fed condition in Ari and South Omo Zone and other similar agro ecologies.