Why Has a Single Rice Cultivar Dominated the Lowland Rice Production Portfolio of Ethiopia for so Long?

Rice is becoming an enterprise of choice in the Ethiopian farming system. The Fogera plain accounts for 68% of the area and 71% of the production of rice in the country. This paper attempts to explain why a single cultivar called ‘X-Jigna’ has dominated the lowland rice production portfolio of the Fogera plain in the country for more than 30 years and pinpoints the lessons that these inform to the national rice breeding program. X-Jigna was introduced from North Korea and adopted and recommended by Korean scientists in mid-1980s. Rice adoption study (2016-2017) in the Fogera plain showed more than 81% X-Jigna cultivation. Despite its long time deployment into the production, it has been showing good performance in terms of grain yield, biomass yield with good palatability, good disease reaction, phenotypic acceptability, good tillering capacity, and white caryopsis color. Furthermore, the cultivar has a long and well-exerted panicle, uniform stand, good physical quality, acceptability, and wider utilization. In addition, farmers describe its quality in terms of high flour density ‘wuha yanesal’ and softness stay of the enjera. Generally, farmers describe X-Jigna as a variety that fulfills most of their important traits. The national breeding program developed at least six lowland rice improved varieties for the Fogera plain to replace X-Jigna. However, the replacement rate of the old varieties is quite low as evidenced by the high adoption rate and longtime cultivation of X-Jigna. The breeding program needs to stop by and question why this happened and the journey undergone to come here. One of the critical issues that can be learned from the over years of engagement of the breeding program is that it has followed a trait-based improvement approach to deploy new varieties, which led to the low adoption of new varieties. As a way forward, the breeding program has to be demand-driven and product-oriented.