Search

Tef is the most widely grown and consumed crop in Ethiopia. The crop is currently gaining growing popularity worldwide as nutritious and gluten free cereal crop. Al-toxicity is one of the factors that limit expansion of the crop worldwide. The aims of this study were to adapt hydroponic system as a phenotyping platform for Al-tolerance studies in tef, to identify appropriate concentration of Al3+ for Al-tolerance screening in tef, and to appraise the use of haematoxylin staining for visual assessment of Al-tolerance in tef. A tolerant and a sensitive genotypes were used to identify appropriate Al concentration. The identified Al concentration was used to evaluate reaction of 28 tef genotypes to Al-toxicity. Root and shoot measurements under Al-treated and control solution were used to compute the relative tolerance indexes. Reaction of the tolerant and the sensitive genotypes to haematoxylin staining was assessed by recording intensity of colour development. The result indicate that, among the five levels of AlK(SO4)2.12H2O (0-550 µM), the 150 µM concentration was found to be an appropriate level to discriminate between sensitive and tolerant genotypes of tef. This concentration adequately differentiated 28 tef genotypes with varied sensitivity to Al-toxicity. The visual assessment of selected tolerant and sensitive genotypes treated with 0, 150 and 250 µM AlK(SO4)2 .12H2O showed a differential reaction to haematoxylin staining consistent with the root growth measurement methods. The tolerant E. curvula showed no staining reaction across all the Al levels. The local Al-tolerant tef landrace, Dabo banja, showed a slightly purplish stain only at the highest level of Al. The two sensitive genotypes (E. Pilossa and Holeta Key), however, showed deep purple staining at concentrations of 150 and 250 µM AlK(SO4)2.12H2O. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to report the use of root measurement and root staining methods in evaluation of tef for tolerance to Al-toxicity using hydroponics platform.

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

Drought stress is the most important factor that limits mung bean production and productivity at large in drought-prone areas of Ethiopia. It is hence necessary to identify and verify drought-tolerant and productive varieties of major crops grown in drought areas of the country like mung bean. The present study was conducted to evaluate mung bean genotypes for drought tolerance under in-vitro conditions and to assess the performance of the in-vitro developed regenerants under greenhouse conditions. The in-vitro experiment was thus arranged in a factorial experiment using a completely randomized design with three replications. Three mung bean genotypes, NLLP-MGC-06/G6 (tolerant), VC6368 (46-40-4)/G34 (moderate), and NLLP-MGC-02/G2 (sensitive) and five polyethylene glycol (PEG) levels (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0%) were used. The analysis of variance exhibited significant differences among the genotypes for all the studied parameters except the number of roots per shoot. There were significant differences observed among PEG levels for all the studied parameters. Significant genotypes x PEG interactions were observed for all the studied traits except total roots per culture and survival percentage. Increasing polyethylene glycol concentration from 0% to 2.0% in the medium caused a gradual increase in root length from 0.49 cm at 0% PEG to 1.17 cm at 2.0% PEG, respectively. This revealed an adaptive mechanism to the decreased moisture content in the root zones of plants and enhanced increased root length to reach deeper water in the soil. Regenerant from the treatment combinations of G34 (0) exhibited the highest values for the number of primary branches per plant (4.00). Grain yield for the in-vitro regenerated plants evaluated at greenhouse conditions ranged from 552.52 kg ha-1 at the treatment combination of G2 (1) to 996.23 kg ha-1 at the treatment combinations of G6 (0). Most of the regenerants obtained from NLLP-MGC-06/G6 and VC6368 (46-40-4)/G34 showed the best performance under the greenhouse for drought-tolerance under the in-vitro condition, suggesting that the accumulated performance of the tested regenerants under in-vitro conditions was realized under greenhouse conditions. It also indicated that in-vitro culture is an important tool to identify and verify drought-tolerant genotypes and improve desirable agronomical traits. Further study is indeed required to understand the mechanism of drought tolerance for in-vitro-selected somaclones.

A multi-environment evaluation of mung bean genotypes was conducted in six environments across Ethiopia to select promising genotypes. This study was conducted to estimate the magnitude of genotypes by environment interaction (GEI) and seed yield stability of the selected drought-tolerant mung bean genotypes across different environments. A total of fifteen mung bean genotypes were used. Out of these, two released varieties were used as standard checks. The field experiments were conducted during the 2019 main cropping season at six locations namely Humbo, Gofa, Melkassa, Konso, Jinka, and Kako using a randomized complete block design with three replications. Data were subjected to analysis of variance, Additive Main Effects and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI), and GGE bi-plot analysis. A combined analysis of variance revealed significant variations among the genotype, environments, and GEI for yield and yield-related traits, indicating that seed yield was significantly affected by these factors. Analysis of variance from the AMMI model indicated the contribution of environment, genotype, and GEI was 59.6%, 16.8%, and 14.8% of the total variation in seed yield, respectively. Sum squares of the first and the second interaction principal component axis (IPCA) explained 47.4% and 7.4% of the GEI variation, respectively. The IPCA1 mean square was highly significant (P≤0.01) and that of IPCA2 was significant (p≤0.05), indicating the adequacy of the AMMI model with the first two IPCAs for cross-validation of the seed yield variation. The magnitude of the GEI sum squares was 4.4 times that of the genotypes sum squares for seed yield, indicating the presence of substantial differences in genotypic responses across the environments. The results for the AMMI, Yield stability index (YSI), AMMI Stability Value (ASV), and GGE biplot, analyses depicted that the genotypes G6 (NLLP-MGC-24), G13 (Acc006), and G3 (NLLP-MGC-15) were identified as stable and high yielders across the environments and should be considered for variety release. AMMI1 biplot showed Kako was the potential and favorable environment for mung bean production, while Humbo was an unfavorable for mung bean production., Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Vol 7 No 1 (2022)

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.

A changing climate, a growing world population, and a reduction in arable land devoted to food production are all problems facing the world food security. The development of crops that can yield under uncertain and extreme climatic and soil growing conditions can play a key role in mitigating these problems. Major crops such as maize, rice, and wheat are responsible for a large proportion of global food production but many understudied crops (commonly known as “orphan crops”) including millets, cassava, and cowpea feed millions of people in Asia, Africa, and South America and are already adapted to the local environments in which they are grown. The application of modern genetic and genomic tools to the breeding of these crops can provide enormous opportunities for ensuring world food security but is only in its infancy. In this review, the diversity and types of understudied crops will be introduced, and the beneficial traits of these crops as well as their role in the socioeconomics of Africa will be discussed. In addition, the response of orphan crops to diverse types of abiotic stresses is investigated. A review of the current tools and their application to the breeding of enhanced orphan crops will also be described. Finally, few examples of global efforts on tackling major abiotic constraints in Africa are presented.

Millets are major food and feed sources in the developing world especially in the semi-arid tropical regions of Africa and Asia. The most widely cultivated millets are pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.], finger millet [Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn], foxtail millet [Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauvois], Japanese barnyard millet [Echinochloa esculneta (A. Braun) H. Scholz], Indian Barnyard millet [Echinochloa frumetacea Link], kodo millet [Paspalum scrobiculatum L.], little millet [Panicum sumatrense Roth.ex.Roem. & Schult.], proso millet [Panicum miliaceum L.], tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] and fonio or acha [Digitaria exilis (Kippist) Stapf and D. iburua Stapf]. Millets are resilient to extreme environmental conditions especially to inadequate moisture and are rich in nutrients. Millets are also considered to be a healthy food, mainly due to the lack of gluten (a substance that causes coeliac disease) in their grain. Despite these agronomic, nutritional and health-related benefits, millets produce very low yield compared to major cereals such as wheat and rice. This extremely low productivity is related to the challenging environment in which they are extensively cultivated and to the little research investment in these crops. Recently, several national and international initiatives have begun to support the improvement of diverse millet types.

Food security is the main concern in Africa as the production and productivity of crops are under continuous threat. Indigenous crops also known as orphan- or as underutilized- crops provide key contributions to food security under the present scenario of increasing world population and changing climate. Hence, these crops which belong to the major categories of cereals, legumes, fruits and root crops play a key role in the livelihood of the resource-poor farmers and consumers since they perform better than the major world crops under extreme soil and climate conditions prevalent in the continent. These indigenous crops have the major advantage that they fit well into the general socio-economic and ecological context of the region. However, despite their huge importance, African crops have generally received little attention by the global scientific community. With the current production systems, only a fraction of yield potential was achieved for most of these crops. In order to devise strategies towards boosting crop productivity in Africa, the current production constraints should be investigated and properly addressed. Key traits known to increase productivity and/or improve nutrition and diverse conventional and modern crop improvement techniques need to be implemented. Commitments in the value-chain from the research, production, marketing to distribution of improved seeds are required by relevant national and international institutions as well as African governments to promote food security in a sustainable manner. The review also presents major achievements and suggestions for stakeholders interested in African agriculture.

Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is an important staple food crop, especially in Ethiopia where it is annually grown on 2.8 million hectares of land. It is important for food security in the region, in spite of having a low yield, mainly due to lodging. In this study, 15 representative landraces as well as three improved varieties have been selected for in-depth characterization of many parameters, especially those implicated in yield. The genotypes were clustered into six groups, mainly based on agronomic traits and about 80% of the diversity in the genotypes could be explained on the basis of four principal components. In general, all traits investigated showed substantial diversity among genotypes, offering high chances for improving tef through direct selection or intra-specific hybridization. Moreover, in view of climatic changes, breeding with early maturing landraces such as Red dabi or Karadebi would be advantageous to cope with moisture scarcity during the later stage of crop maturity.

Orphan- or understudied-crops are mostly staple food crops in developing world. They are broadly classified under cereals, legumes, root crops, fruits and vegetables. These under-researched crops contribute to the diet of a large portion of resource-poor consumers and at the same time generate income for small-holder farmers in developing countries, particularly in Africa. In addition, they perform better than major crops of the world under extreme soil and climatic conditions. However, orphan crops are not without problems. Due to lack of scientific investigation, most of them produce low yields while others have a variety of toxins that affect the health of consumers. Here, we present some highlights on the status and future perspectives of the Tef Biotechnology Project that employs modern improvement technique in order to genetically improve tef (Eragrostis tef), one of the most important orphan crop in Africa. A reverse genetics approach known as TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genome) is implemented in order to tackle lodging, the major yield limiting factor in tef.Key words: Orphan crops, underresearched crops, Eragrostis tef, TILLING, semi-dwarf.

Indigenous crops also known as orphan crops are key contributors to food security, which is becoming increasingly vulnerable with the current trend of population growth and climate change. They have the major advantage that they fit well into the general socio-economic and ecological context of developing world agriculture. However, most indigenous crops did not benefit from the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased the yield of major crops such as wheat and rice. Here, we describe the Tef Improvement Project, which employs both conventional- and molecular-breeding techniques to improve tef—an orphan crop important to the food security in the Horn of Africa, a region of the world with recurring devastating famines. We have established an efficient pipeline to bring improved tef lines from the laboratory to the farmers of Ethiopia. Of critical importance to the long-term success of this project is the cooperation among participants in Ethiopia and Switzerland, including donors, policy makers, research institutions, and farmers. Together, European and African scientists have developed a pipeline using breeding and genomic tools to improve the orphan crop tef and bring new cultivars to the farmers in Ethiopia. We highlight a new variety, Tesfa, developed in this pipeline and possessing a novel and desirable combination of traits. Tesfa’s recent approval for release illustrates the success of the project and marks a milestone as it is the first variety (of many in the pipeline) to be released., Euphytica, 214 (2), ISSN:0014-2336, ISSN:1573-5060

The grass or Poaceae family includes all cereal crops and forage grasses. Hence, they play a significant role in the economy of both the developed and developing world. Similar to other crop types, grasses are continuously challenged by a variety of environmental constraints. These constraints include a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses, and an enabling environment, which mainly refers to policy-related issues that affect productivity. In this book, the importance of selected cereal crops and grasses as well as associated constraints are presented. In addition, techniques proven to improve the productivity of these groups of crops are discussed. The techniques include variety development, soil and crop management practices, and biological control of fungal pathogens using different types of bacterial strains.

MicroRNAs are a class of post-transcriptional regulators of plant developmental and physiological processes and responses to environmental stresses. Here, we present the study regarding the annotation and characterization of MIR genes conducted in durum wheat. We characterized the miRNAome of leaf and root tissues at tillering stage under two environmental conditions: irrigated with 100% (control) and 55% of evapotranspiration (early water stress). In total, 90 microRNAs were identified, of which 32 were classified as putative novel and species-specific miRNAs. In addition, seven microRNA homeologous groups were identified in each of the two genomes of the tetraploid durum wheat. Differential expression analysis highlighted a total of 45 microRNAs significantly differentially regulated in the pairwise comparisons leaf versus root. The miRNA families, miR530, miR395, miR393, miR5168, miR396 and miR166, miR171, miR319, and miR167, were the most expressed in leaves in comparison to roots. Putative microRNA targets were predicted for both five and three prime sequences derived from the stem-loop of the MIR gene. Gene ontology analysis showed significant overrepresented gene categories in microRNA targets belonging to transcription factors, phenylpropanoids, oxydases, and lipid binding-protein. This work represents one of the first genome wide characterization of MIR genes in durum wheat, identifying leaf and root tissue-specific microRNAs. This genomic identification of microRNAs together with the analysis of their expression profiles is a well-accepted starting point leading to a better comprehension of the role of MIR genes in the genus Triticum.