Article

In Ethiopia, several varieties of bread wheat have been nationally released for large-scaleproduction. However, their yield potential and rust resistance will not last long, mainly due to thestem and yellow rust epidemics. The objective of this experiment was to release and registerhigh-yielding, disease-resistant and stable variety. Boku was selected from theintroduced CIMMYT materials withthepedigree of REEDLING #1//KFA/2*KACHU. Under multi-location, the variety had performedbetter than all genotypes and checks. This variety is a late maturing cultivar but earlier thanvariety Galan; it takes an average of 74 days from planting to heading and requires 139 days tomature. Yield performance of variety Boku ranged from 5.3 to 7.2 t/ha on theresearch field and 4.9to 6.8 t/ha on farmers’fields. Based on stability analysis, variety Boku was identified as the moststable. Additionally, depending on seedling and field evaluation for stem rust and yellow rust,Boku was found to be resistant to both yellow and stem rusts (seedling and field) for the existingrust races. The result of TKW, HLW, quality gluten and protein indicates that the variety has thebest quality that is acceptable by food factories as its quality meets the required standard.Therefore, variety Boku was fully released for the highlands of Bale and similar agro-ecologiesbecause it has high grain yield and quality, stable yield across environments.