Agronomic, Yield, and Fiber Quality Performance of Improved Cotton Varieties under Irrigated Conditions of Weyto and Sille Cotton Growing Areas of Ethiopia.

A number of cotton varieties are presently available in Ethiopia, all of which differ in adaptability, yield potential, and agronomic characteristics. It is important that producers should be aware of both the superior and poor characteristics of each variety to produce the most suitable ones. The aim of this study was to evaluate the agronomic, yield, and fiber quality performances of improved cotton varieties under irrigation conditions in cotton producing farms in Weyto and Sille areas of Ethiopia. The combined analysis of variance revealed significant (P = 0.01) differences among the varieties for plant height, boll number per plant, boll weight, seed cotton yield, ginning out-turn, lint yield, micronaire, fiber length, and fiber strength. There was no significant interaction effect of variety by location (V*L) and variety by environment (V*Y*L) for economically most important traits (seed cotton yield, lint yield, fiber length, and fiber strength). The highest seed cotton yield (4.35 t ha^-1) was recorded for Deltapine-90 cotton variety. The lint yields obtained from the cotton varieties ranged between 1.02 t ha^-1 and 1.70 t ha^-1. It is concluded that Weyto is more suitable for cotton production than Sille since all varieties showed better performances for economically important traits at this location. This implies that future cotton research should focus on developing varieties having diverse genetic bases, high yielding potential and fiber quality merits to enhance cotton productivity and meet the demand of manufacturing industries in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]