This activity was conducted in Wayu Tuqa and Ilu-Harar districts of East Wollega and Ilu-Ababora zones of Western Oromia with the objective of demonstrating the recently released small pod hot pepper varieties, Kume, Dinsire, and commercial check to the farming community in the districts. The districts were purposively selected based on potentiality for small pod hot pepper production, and one potential PA from each of the districts was selected on the basis of accessibility and potentiality. After selecting, establishing, and training farmers, three small pod hot pepper varieties of which two newly released small pod hot pepper varieties from Bako Agricultural Research Center; Kume and Dinsire; and one commercial check; were planted side by side on 10 m × 10 m adjacent plots on a total of 6 farmers’ fields in both the districts. All recommended agronomic practices were equally applied to all the plots and the fields were closely supervised and were managed well. At maturity, the varieties were jointly evaluated with a team composed of researchers, farmers and DAs. To this end; despite the slight variability in criteria set by farmers at the respective locations yield, pod color, disease resistance/tolerance, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, early maturity, and pod size were considered as most important traits listed by farmers for selection among the demonstrated varieties. In both locations, farmers evaluated the demonstrated varieties; accordingly, the Kume variety was ranked and selected first thereby Dinsire second, and finally, a commercial check was third in most of the criteria including yield, and impressed the farmers; especially a number of pods/plants, pod color and a number of seeds per pod. With regard to yield, 6.44 qt/ha, 6.04 qt/ha, and 3.68 qt/ha were obtained from Kume, Dinsire, and commercial check; respectively putting Kume on the first rank, then by Dinsire and finally commercial check. Besides; Kume and Dinsire had 75% and 64.13% yield advantages; respectively over the check and this implied that both Kume and Dinsire varieties had higher yield advantages than the check. Further; the statistical ANOVA table and mean yield comparison (t-test) results of on-farm yield performances showed that there is a highly significant difference at (p?0.05) among the varieties demonstrated and even a significant difference between the released varieties; Kume and Dinsire. Furthermore; in terms of profitability, the financial analysis result of the study also showed that using the Kume variety could make the most profitable than by Dinsire and finally the least from a check. Therefore; as the variety has met the intended criteria of the farmers and is selected by farmers at large the pre-scaling-up activity should follow next on a wider area and on more farmers in the coming years.
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