Abstract

An on-farm study was carried out under rain-fed condition in 2003 - 2004 and 2004 - 2005 growing seasons in five sites namely Ntchenachena and Ngong’a in Rumphi district, Chipuka in Ntchisi district, Thondwe and Matapwata in Zomba and Thyolo districts respectively representing three bean agro-ecological zones of Malawi. Seven dwarf bean entries; DC 96-95, PC 490-D8, BCMV-B2, SDDT-54-C5, APN 130, F6BC (19) and DOR 715 were evaluated for their yield stability across sites and two seasons under Researcher Designed Farmer Managed (RDFM) system. Yield stability of the entries across years varied significantly. Entries SDDT-54-C5, PC490-D8 and DOR 715 were stable across all sites and between the two seasons. DOR 715 was also high yielding entry in Thondwe and Ntchenachena sites followed by BCMV B2 though the latter was unstable. Among sites, Thondwe was the best because yields of most of the bean entries were stable at this site.

Key words: Agro-ecological zones, on-farm, Phaseolus vulgaris L., Researcher Designed Farmer Managed (RDFM), stability.