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Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is extensively cultivated cereal crop in Ethiopia where it is annually grown by about 6.5 million smallholder farmers on about 30% of the total area allocated to cereal crops. However, the productivity of tef is very low compared to other cereals mainly due to little scientific research on the crop, widespread use of local varieties coupled with traditional cultural practices, and lack of drought tolerant varieties. A multi-environment field experiment was, therefore, carried with the objectives of identifying and releasing high yielding and farmer- and consumer-preferred tef variety for moisture deficit areas of the country. The drought tolerant tef genotypes tested were derived from two independent crosses of Dtt2 x Dtt13 and DZ-Cr-387 x Dtt2. The parental lines Dtt2 (drought tolerant tef2) and Dtt13 (drought tolerant tef 13) were obtained by screening 5,000 ethylmethane sulfonate (EMS) mutagenized populations from an improved variety called Tsedey. Twelve candidate droughts tolerant tef genotypes from preliminary variety trials and a local as well as standard check varieties (Boset) were tested over two years (2018 and 2019 main cropping seasons) at five moisture deficit tef growing areas in Ethiopia (viz. Debre Zeit light soil, Minjar, Alemtena, Melkassa and Sirinka) using randomized complete block design with four replications. Late sowing combined with light textured soils was used to simulate terminal drought stress at Debre Zeit light soil and Minjar. The combined analyses of variance did not exhibit statistically significant difference for genotype by environment interaction. However, among the tested lines, the candidate line RIL 37 from Dtt2 x Dtt13 cross was found superior in grain yield over the standard check Boset variety (by 13.2%) and the local cultivar (by 27.6%). The candidate line was further evaluated in the variety verification trial during the 2020 main cropping season and approved for the release by the National Variety Release Committee in 2021 with name DZ-Cr-498 (RIL 37) or Boni.

Limited information exists on the economics of horticultural production in Ethiopia. For instance, while the yield of shallot is fairly known, its production costs and benefits are grossly unknown. The objective of this study was, therefore, to estimate the profit and technical efficiency of small-scale irrigation farming by monitoring the costs incurred. Based on farm-level data from 106 small-scale irrigation producers, the farm level profit and output-oriented technical efficiency indices were determined using the SPSS computer package and stochastic production function, respectively. The average cost to produce one kilogram of shallot was estimated at Birr 0.72 whereas the average farm gate price was estimated at Birr 1.87. This indicated that producing shallot under smallscale irrigation farming is a financially viable venture, and it significantly contributed to household cash income and food security. The profit levels at the the three studied areas ranged from24-145%. The stochastic frontier results revealed mean technical efficiency of 0.77 for all the farms. This means that average levels of farms were below the frontier by 23%, which otherwise means that the total output of shallot could be increased by up to 23% above the actual output levels attained in the study area during the survey year. The most limiting factors for small-scale irrigation farming were the demand of the irrigation husbandry for strenuous efforts of the farmers (95%), lack of fertilizer (91%), input-costs (70%), lack of credits (45%) and shortage of water in May (30%).&nbsp

Three field experiments were carried out on black soil (Vertisols) at Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center during the main season between 2011 and 2013 to determine appropriate sowing/planting methods, seed rates, inter- and intra-row spacings, and planting depth for tef. Each experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Data were taken on days to panicle emergence and to maturity, plant height, panicle length, lodging index, shoot biomass, and grain yield. Combined analyses of variance over years showed that sowing methods had no significant effect on any of the traits assessed, while sowing methods and seed rates interaction effects were significant for all the traits evaluated. Irrespective of sowing methods significantly higher grain yields were recorded with higher seeding rates (10-25 kg/ha). Among the spacing treatments, sowing with 10 cm row spacing showed the highest mean grain (2621 kg/ha) and shoot biomass (21861 kg/ha) yield. Hill planting irrespective of the row spacing gave the lowest grain and shoot biomass yield, while transplanting, gave intermediate grain and shoot biomass yield comparable to those of row sowing. In the third experiment that combined row spacing and sowing depth, the highest grain yield (2404 kg/ha) was obtained from 20 cm row spacing by 3 cm planting depth followed by 20 cm row spacing by 5 cm planting depth (2292 kg/ha). Overall, based on the results of this study, seed rates of 10-15 kg/ha for both broadcasting and row spacing, and row spacing of 20 cm and sowing depth of 3 cm would be recommended for tef production on black soils at Debre Zeit and other similar areas.&nbsp

Drought has become challenging globally, particularly under rain-fed crop production systems of Ethiopia. It is one of the major causes for wheat yield reduction. One hundred forty-four durum wheat genotypes were evaluated at Debre-Zeit experiment station in 2017 dry season, under drought stressed and non-stressed environments, to identify drought tolerant genotypes and suitable drought screening indices. The trial was conducted during the off-season. Based on grain yield under stressed and non-stressed conditions, various drought tolerant indices including Abiotic tolerance indices (ATI), Geometric mean productivity (GMP), Stress tolerance indices (STI), Stress stability indices (SSI), Tolerance indices (TOL), Yield index (YI) and Drought resistance indices (DRI) were computed. The combined analysis of variance showed that moisture, genotypes and their interaction had a significant (p≤0.01) effect on grain yield. Principal component and Correlation analysis indicated that DRI, YI, YSI and REI, as important indices highly correlated with grain yield under stress suggesting their suitability to identify drought tolerant genotypes. Cluster analysis also grouped the genotypes into five different clusters having various characteristics. Overall, evaluation of durum wheat genotypes for drought stress using different analysis identified G-16, G-763, G-31, G-119, G-63 and G-30 as drought tolerant genotypes. DRI, YI and YSI could be regarded as good indices for the identification of drought tolerant lines. MP, GMP, and REI were the best indices to identify suitable genotypes to both drought and non-drought stressed environment.

Background: Teff is an important staple cereal crop in northwestern Ethiopia. However, the yield of the crop is very low due to, among others, lack of stable and high yielding varieties under varying environmental conditions because of genotype x environment interaction effect. Objective: The study was conducted to assess the effect of genotype by environment interaction, identify mega environments, and select high yielding and stable teff genotypes that interact less with the changing environment. Materials and Methods: Twenty improved teff varieties were evaluated using a randomized complete block design with three replications at Adet, Motta, Bichena, Debre-Tabor and Takussa districts for two consecutive years. Data were collected on days to heading and maturity, plant height, grain filling period, panicle and culm length, dry plant biomass and grain yield. The data were analyzed using a combined analysis of variance and genotype main effect plus genotype by environment interaction biplot. Results: The combined analysis of variance for grain yield revealed highly significant (P < 0.001) effects for genotype (16%), environment (54%) and genotype x environment interaction (23%). The effect of environment was three times higher than that of genotype, indicating significant and undesirable influence of the environment on genotype stability. The mean grain yield across the environments ranged from 1.65 to 2.77 tons ha–1 for Debre-Tabor and Takussa, respectively. The genotype mean yield ranged from 1.68 to 2.51 tons ha–1 for Simada and Hiber-1, respectively. Genotype by environment interaction biplot analysis grouped the ten test environments and twenty genotypes into three mega-environments and four genotype groups. Besides, Adet district and Bichena district had relatively the longest vector length and the smallest angles with the average environmental axis, thus being the most representative of all environments. Regarding genotypes, Hiber -1 followed by Kora, Etsub and Dukem were identified as the best yielding and relatively stable genotypes to increase teff productivity in the region. Conclusion: The biplot analysis of the genotype by environment interaction resulted in the identification of Adet and Bichena districts as the most favorable locations for teff production and as well as Hiber-1 as the most productive teff variety for cultivation in the study area. This implies that farmers in the two districts could be advised to take up this variety for enhancing yield of the crop and income from its production., East African Journal of Sciences, Vol. 16 No. 1 (2022): East African Journal of Sciences

አህፅሮት ኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ ጤፍ (Eragrostis tef) ከ6.5 ሚሊዮን በሚበልጡ አነስተኛ አርሶ አደሮች ይመረታል፡፡ ሆኖም ግን የተሻሻሉ ቴክኖሎጂዎችና የምርጥ ዘር ተጠቃሚነት ውስን በመሆኑ የሰብሉ ምርታማነት ዝቅተኛ እንደሆነ ቀጥሏል፡፡ ስለሆነም አነስተኛ አርሶ አደሮች ጥራቱን ለጠበቀ የጤፍ አራቢ ዘር ያላቸውን ተደራሽነት ለመጨመር ዓላማ ያደረገ ጥናት በ254 መሪ አርሶ አደሮች ማሳ ላይ ተካሂዷል፡፡ በጥናቱም በቅርብ ጊዜ የተለቀቁ ሦስት አዳዲስ ዝርያዎች እና አንድ ቀደም ብሎ የተለቀቀ ዝርያ (ቦሰት) ተካተው ተገምግመዋል፡፡ ለእያንዳንዱ መሪ-አርሶ አደር የአራቱም ዝርያዎች ማለትም የኮራ፣ የተስፋ፣ የዳግም እና የቦሰት አራቢ ዘር ተሰጥቷል፡፡ የአራቱ ዝርያዎች የዘር ምርት ተቀራራቢ (ኮራ = 1.94፣ ተስፋ = 2.31፣ ዳግም = 2.24 እና ቦሰት = 2.36 ቶን በሄክታር) ነበር፡፡ ጥናቱ በተካሄደባቸው ወረዳዎች ያለውን የግብዓት ዋጋ እና የምርት ዋጋ እሳቤ ውስጥ ሲገባ የተገኘው አማካይ ያልተጣራ ገቢ 65,355.90 ብር በሄክታር ሲሆን አማካይ የማምረቻ ወጪው ደግሞ 26,355.52 ብር በሄክታር ነበር፡፡ ከማምረቻ ወጪዎች መካከል ለጉልበት የወጣው ወጪ ትልቁን ድርሻ ሲይዝ ከጠቅላላው ወጪ 58 በመቶ ድርሻ ነበረው፡፡ በአጠቃላይ የገቢ-ወጪ ምጣኔ 1.5 በመሆኑ የተሻሻለ የጤፍ ዝርያ ቴክኖሎጂ መጠቀም በጣም ትርፋማ እንደሆነ ጥናቱ ያመልክታል፡፡ ይህም በመሆኑ አዳዲስ የሚወጡ የጤፍ ዝርያዎችን ዘር አባዝቶ ለገብያ ማቅረብን ትኩረት ያደረገ የሰርቶ ማሳያ ስራ ቢሰራ ለአርሶ አደሮች ሳቢና አዋጭ ሆኖ ተገኝትዋል፡፡ ጠቋሚ ቃላት፡ መሪ አርሶ አደሮች፤ የጤፍ ዝርያዎች፤ የምርጥ ዘር ምርት፤ የጤፍ ጭድ፤ የምርት ዋጋ Abstract Tef (Eragrostis tef) is extensively cultivated by over 6.5 million smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. However, the productivity of the crop remains low mainly due to the limited use of improved technologies including seeds. In this study, three recently released and one old (as a check) tef varieties were evaluated on 254 lead farmers’ fields with the main aim of increasing farmers’ access to quality breed seeds.Each lead farmer was provided with breeder seeds of four improved tef varieties, namely Kora, Tesfa, Dagim, and Boset.The seed yield from the four tef varieties were comparable (Kora = 1.94, Tesfa = 2.31, Dagim =2.24 and Boset = 2.36 t ha-1). Given the input and output prices that prevail in the selected districts, the mean revenue was 65,355.90 Birr ha-1 while the mean production cost was 26,355.52 Birr ha-1. Among production costs, labor took for the lion’s share as it contributed to 58% of the total cost. In general, with a benefit-cost ratio of 1.5, our technology is highly profitable and attractive to farmers if newly released tef varieties are disseminated in the seed-business-oriented method. &nbsp

Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is an indigenous Ethiopian cereal providing healthy and nutritious diets for people and a palatable straw for livestock. Thirty-five released varieties and a local check were grown at two locations over two years in Ethiopia to investigate the variation in grain and straw yield and straw quality traits of tef. The investigated traits were grain yield (GY), straw yield (STY), crude protein (CP), in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD), metabolizable energy (ME), acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL). GY, CP, IVOMD and ME were significantly (P < 0.01) affected by the variety of tef, the cultivation environment and their interactions. The performances of the GY, CP, IVOMD and ME traits were higher (P < 0.01) at mid-altitude, in Debre Zeit, compared to the high-altitude site, Holetta, and in 2016 than 2015. Similarly, the associations observed between GY and STY, among CP, ME and IVOMD, and among NDF, ADF and ADL were significant (P

The tef crop has both its center of origin and diversity in Ethiopia. Tef is the product of nature and nurture, and it has co-evolved with Ethiopians in the course of cultivation by the framers over the millennia. The diverse agro-ecologies and sociocultural conditions of the country have also endowed the country with a huge wealth of genetic diversity in phenologic, agronomic and morphological traits as well as traits associated to nutrition and biotic and abiotic stress tolerances. Such diversity offers opportunities to develop suitable varieties for diverse cropping systems, agroecologies and utilization aspects. However, the physiological mechanisms and the traits and genes associated with the nutritional values and stress tolerances are little known. Collection, characterization, evaluation and conservation of the tef genetic resources have not yet been comprehensively and systematically done. Because of this, some duplication of tef accessions are expected in the Ethiopian gene bank holdings. Hence, rigorous conservation, characterization, and utilization of these resources including its wild relatives are essential for sustainable improvement of the crop. Various studies based on morphological, cytological, biochemical and molecular markers suggested E. pilosa as the closest relatives to tef. The diploid ancestors of tef are, however, not yet known since E. pilosa is a tetraploid species like tef. Hence, the identification of the diploid progenitors of tef based on genome analysis as well as biochemical and molecular markers is far more than scientific curiosity since the knowledge of the diploid progenitors would open an avenue to resynthesize tef and create de novo variability including important traits like lodging tolerance. Overall, the most important areas of future research emphasis include: 1) Systematic and comprehensive collections of germplasm including wild relatives so as to mitigate the representation gaps and capture the evolutionary dynamics; 2) Extensive evaluation and characterization of the tef genetic resources including the wild relatives using both phenotypic, biochemical and molecular markers; 3) Establishment of more refined and representative set of “core tef germplasm” and minimization of duplications of germplasm accessions in gene-banks; and 4) Mining of the tef genetic resources with respect to the identification of noble genes and traits associated with abiotic and biotic stress tolerance, quality and metabolites.

In vitro technology has been advancing as a highly valuable pre-breeding tool for achieving better results in germplasm preservation, distant hybridization and genetic transformation approaches. Furtheremore, it has been gaining a growing importance in direct applications in conventional line selection by facilitating asexual multiplication, inducing variations, undertaking site-directed mutagenesis and production of doubled haploids. Because of genetic difference, tissue specificity and culture environment (media) interactions, there are no universally applicable protocols of culture and regeneration pathways. It varies as tissues from different sources and species as well as varieties differ in their response and culture requirements. The challenges are more conspicuous with recalcitrant monocot species such as tef.

In summary, whilst the generation of basic scientific information on the genetics, genomics, physiology and other related biosciences is still a fundamental requirement, the overall improvement of tef in Ethiopia requires a concerted and holistic multi-disciplinary approach. This, in turn, calls for enhancement of national, regional and international networking, collaboration and data sharing among research and development, and donor institutions and organizations. Last but not least, in order to see the impact on the genetic progress research on tef, it is imperative to undertake large-scale popularization of the released varieties, where the end-user farmers can see the impact of such improved technologies through demonstrations and scaling up activities involving improved varieties coupled with commensurate management practices.

Due to the large influence of the environment on plant development and morphology, there is a lot of potential to use a variety of crop management processes to improve tef production. A major benefit of this is that these methods can be used to promote development of desirable traits in tef varieties already preferred by farmers. Initiatives such as Sustainable Rice Intensification (SRI), a basic system of crop management practises for rice, are already improving cereal crop performance around the world (Mishra et al., 2006).

Induced mutation has been playing a significant role in the improvement of diverse crop types. This led to the release of over 3200 crop varieties in over 70 countries. We implemented induced mutation on tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter), one of the most important cereal crops in the Horn of Africa, especially in Ethiopia, where it is annually cultivated on over 3 million hectares of land, equivalent to 30% of the total area allocated to cereals. Although tef is extensively cultivated in Ethiopia due to its resilience to diverse environmental stresses, the productivity of the crop is very low. The Tef Improvement Project based at the University of Bern in Switzerland employs mutation breeding to tackle major constraints in tef in order to enhance crop productivity. About 12,000 EMS (ethyl methanesulfonate) mutagenized M2 families were generated from four improved tef varieties, namely ���Tsedey���, ���Dukem���, ���Kora��� and ���Dagim���. Screening for major traits of importance helped us to obtain several candidate lines, including semi-dwarf and lodging-tolerant, drought-tolerant and acid-soil-tolerant lines. Among these, the most promising ones were introgressed to locally adapted improved varieties followed by several years of testing at representative locations for traits of interest. As a result, a new variety called ���Tesfa��� with a novel and desirable combination of traits was approved for release to the farming community. This shows that the project has been actively involved in all three phases of induced mutation: mutation induction, mutation detection and mutation breeding.

Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is the major cultivated cereal crop in Ethiopia and serves as staple food grain for over 65% of the population. The area under tef cultivation is over three million hectares of land each year. Depending on the type of seed color, tef grains are categorized into white and brown, while some admixtures and intermediate seed colors also exist. However, the productivity of tef is very low as compared to other cereals due, among others, to lack of high yielding varieties. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of released brown seeded tef variety called Felagot and to provide unique morphological and agronomic descriptions of this new variety. Twelve genotypes resulting from two independent crossesnd breed for at least seven generations plus local and standard check varieties were tested over two years (2014 and 2015 main season) at six tef growing locations namely: Debre Zeit light soil, Debre Zeit Black soil, Minjar, Adet, Bichena and Holetta using randomized complete block design with four replications. The study found that Felagot (DZ-Cr-442/ RIL-77C) which was obtained from a cross between Quncho (the popular variety) and Gea Lammie (local cultivar) exceled the other genotypes and it was approved for release by the Ethiopian National Variety Release Committee in March 2017. The main advantages of Felagot over the other tested lines were its higher grain yield together with high straw yield and brown seed color. In addition, it was released under the brown seed category after one and half decades. Furthermore, it is anticipated that because of the brown seed color Felagot will command high external market preferences and prices, and thereby contribute for future tef export market., ጤፍ በኢትዮጵያ ከሚመረቱ የብርዕና አገዳ ሰብሎች ዋነኛው ሲሆን ከ65 በመቶ ለማያንስ ህዝብ ዋና የምግብ ሰብል በመሆን ያገለግላል፡፡ የጤፍ የዘር ቀለም ተለያይነት ያለው ሲሆን በአብዛኛው ነጭና ቡናማ/ቀይ አንዳንዴም ድብልቅ እና መካከለኛ የዘር ቀለም በየዓመቱ ከሶሰት ሚሊዮን ማሳ በላይ በመሸፈን ይመረታል፡፡ ይሁን እንጂ ከሌሎች ሰብሎች ጋር ሲወዳደር ምርትና ምርታማነቱ ዝቅተኛ ነው፡፡ ለዚህም ዋና ዋና ምክንያት በመሆን የሚጠቀሰው የተሻሻሉ ዝርያዎች በበቂ ሁኔታ አለመኖር ነው፡፡ የዚህ ጥናት ዋና ዓላማ እየጨመረ የመጣውን የቡናማ/ቀይ ጤፍ ፍላጎት ለማሟላት በተለያየ የምርምር አሰራርና ሂደት የተገኘ የጤፍ ዝርያን በመፈተሽ የተሻለ ምርት የሚሰጥና በአርሶ አደሩና በተጠቃሚው ተመራጭ የሆነ ዝርያ ማፍለቅ ነበር፡፡ በጥናቱም አስራ ሁለት የተለያዩ የጤፍ ዓይነቶችን ጨምሮ አንድ በቅርቡ የተለቀቀ እና አንድ የአካባቢ ዝርያን በማካተት በስድስት ወካይ ጤፍ አብቃይ ቦታዎች ላይ ተፈትሸው ፍላጎት (ደዘ-ክሮስ-442) የተባለው ቡናማ/ቀይ ዘር ቀለም ያለው ዝርያ ከሌሎች ማወዳደሪያ ዝርያዎች የተሻለ ውጤት በማስመዝገቡ በብሄራዊ የዝርያ አፅዳቂ ኮሚቴ ተገምግሞ ለምርት እንዲውል ተወስኗል፡፡ በተጨማሪም ይህ ዝርያ ቡናማ/ቀይ ዘር ቀለም ያለው ዝርያ ከተለቀቀ ከአስራ አምስት አመታት በኃላ የተገኘና የወደፊት የውጭ ገበያ ፍላጎትን ለሟሟላት ከፍተኛ አስተዋፅኦ ሊያበረክት የሚችል ነው፡፡

Drought is a serious tef production constraint as most of Ethiopia’s agriculture is rain dependent with limited and erratic distribution. The present study was conducted to evaluate tef genotypes for drought tolerance under in vitro condition, and to assess the performance of the in vitro developed regenerants under greenhouse condition. The in vitro experiment was arranged in a factorial experiment using completely randomized design with three replications. Three tef genotypes including Melko (drought tolerant), Gemechis (moderately tolerant) and Pop12S2 (susceptible) and five polyethylene glycol levels (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2%) were used. Analysis of variance indicated significant differences (P≤0.05) among the genotypes as well as the different polyethylene glycol concentrations for all the measured parameters, but total shoot/culture and survival percentage was not genotype dependent. There was significant genotype by polyethylene glycol interactions on total shoot number/culture, total root number/culture, shoot length, root length and survival percentage, while no significant interaction effect was noted on callus induction efficiency, percent plant regeneration, rooting percentage and number of roots/shoot. The results showed that increasing polyethylene glycol concentration from 0% to 2% in the medium causes a gradual decrease in callus induction and plant regeneration efficiency. In most regenerants, fluctuation behavior was observed for the measured parameters. Hence, to determine the most desirable drought tolerant regenerants, ranking method was taken. Accordingly, regenerant Melko (0.5%), Melko (1.5%), and Melko (1%) gave the most desirable regenerants; thus, they could be used for crossing and further improvement of drought tolerance.