IDENTIFICATION OF CROP PRODUCTION CONSTRAINTS AND TECHNOLOGY NEEDS IN H1 AGRO-ECOLOGY OF SHISHIR PA IN SOUTH ARI DISTRICT OF SOUTH OMO ZONE, ETHIOPIA

The livelihood of over 93% of the people Southern Nation Nationality and peoples Region of Ethiopia dependent on agriculture; however, agricultural system in the region is at subsistence level. Much effort has been put to generate or adapt agricultural technologies that would help to increase production and productivity but only few technologies adopt by the end users. Because, technologies might have not be driven from the real need of the end users. A top bottom approach that dominantly centered researchers/ professional attitudes has been fallowed. For the successful research and development achievement, an agro-ecology based assessment is crucial to understand the specific farming system production practices and problems and technology needs of farmers and /or pastoralists. In this line, an assessment study was conducted in H1 agro-ecology of Shishir PA in Debub Ari district of South omo zone. Mixed farming is the livelihood of the farmers in the PA. The rain fall pattern is bimodal .Major crops grown in the area are Sorghum Maize, Common bean, field pea, and sunflower, Enset (Enset ventricosum), Yam, Cassava, Irish Potato, Sweet Potato, Taro, Garlic, Shallot, Cabbage, Banana, Coffe, Sugarcane, Corianders, Ginger and Peppers.