Search

An experiment was conducted during two consecutive cropping seasons to optimize rates of blended fertilizer for high yield and N use efficiency of tef varieties at Chefe Donsa and Alem Tena. The treatments consisted of a factorial combination of two tef varieties (recently released for the areas) and five fertilizer rates (0, 100 kg ha-1 Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), 50 kg ha-1, 100 and 150 kg ha-1 NPSB. Varieties, such as Dagim and Tesfa were used for Chefe Donsa, whereas Boset and Tsedey were used for Alem Tena. The treatments were arranged following randomized complete block design in triplicate. The result showed that phenology, growth and yield parameters were highly significantly (P

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.

Orphan crops are crops with little significance at the global scale but play vital role in the food and nutrition security in the developing world. The term “orphan” refers to the neglect of the crop by the international research community. Orphan crops are also known as abandoned-, disadvantaged-, lost-, niche-, underutilized-crops, and several other names. Like major crops such as maize, wheat and rice, orphan crops belong to cereals, legumes, vegetables, root and tuber, and fruits. Orphan crops possess desirable agronomical, nutritional, and health-related properties, which makes them favorable crops by both farmers and consumers. The ability of orphan crops to grow under extreme environmental conditions indicates their prospect in the changing climate. Orphan crops are also excellent source of human nutrition. However, due to little scientific improvement, orphan crops produce inferior yield in terms of both the quantity and quality. The recent initiatives and successes by some researchers and institutions at the national and global level has advanced the improvement of few orphan crops. Future research and development on orphan crops require the partnership at the national, regional, and internal level by involving key stakeholders.

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., Journal of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Vol 7 No 2 (2022)

The low productivity of tef is associated with problems inherent to tef botany and lodging. The small seed size of tef poses a major inheritance problem during sowing operations. Techniques such as pelleting seed with organic matter are effective to make them uniform in size and shape. A field study was conducted to determine optimum sowing depth and seed rate of pelleted tef for reducing lodging, and improving productivity of tef under Vertisol conditions during two consecutive cropping seasons (2019 and 2020). A factorial combination of four sowing depths (0, 1, 2 and 3 cm) and three pelleted tef seed rates (60, 90 and 120 kg/ha~5, 7.5 and 10 kg/ha of un-pelleted tef) were used as a treatment. The experiments were laid out in RCBD with three replications. Sowing depth had a significant effect on biomass and grain yield of tef. Tef sowing at the shallowest depth (0 cm) and 1 cm gave the highest biomass yield (11889 kg/ha and 9639 kg/ha, respectively) and grain yield (2786 kg/ha and 2536 kg/ha, respectively). In contrast, the deepest sowing (3 cm) reduced biomass and grain yield of tef. Seed rate played an important role in the biomass yield of tef, the highest biomass yield (10399 kg/ha) was recorded from the 120 kg/ha seed rate of pelleted tef. Regarding lodging, the deepest sowing and lowest seed rate reduced lodging index and a number of root lodged plant. The average lodging index for the deepest sowing (3 cm) was 30.8%, while the shallowest (0 cm) was 69.3%. The result revealed that pelleted tef seed can successfully emerge from a depth of 1 cm without any apparent penalty of yield. Tef even emerged from 2 to 3 cm depth, while showing reduced lodging, but these had a yield penalty. Therefore, it can be concluded that a 1 cm sowing depth and 90 kg/ha pelleted tef are optimal for sowing pelleted tef seed for reducing lodging and improving yield.&nbsp

Assessment of genetic variability in crop species is one of the major activities to meet the diversified goals in plant breeding programs. However, there is a lack of sufficient information on the genetic variability study of mung bean. Therefore, field experiment was conducted on sixty mung bean genotypes with the objectives to assess the genetic variability, heritability, and genetic advance for desirable traits that have a vital role in determining and designing breeding strategies. The experiment was conducted at Jinka Agricultural Research Center laid out in a 6 × 10 alpha lattice design with two replications during the 2018 cropping season. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P≤0.001) differences for most of the traits indicating the existence of high genetic diversity among the genotypes. High estimates of genotypic coefficient of variance (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) was observed for harvest index (48.77% and 59.73%). The lowest GCV and PCV estimates were obtained for days to flowering (3.26% and 6.82%), days to maturity (2.08% and 4.20%), seed yield per hectare (0.34% and 0.45%), and biomass yield per hectare (0.08% and 0.13%). Terminal leaf length, terminal leaf width, peduncle length, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, seeds per pod, seed yield per plant, hundred seed weight, seed yield per hectare, biomass yield, and harvest index exhibited high heritability values. High heritability coupled with high GAM estimates was recorded for plant height, the number of primary branches per plant, hundred seed weight, and harvest index. In general, the observed variability could help to develop breeding schemes for mung bean.&nbsp

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.

Tef is the most important food security crop in Ethiopia. As a result, a dedicated national tef improvement program has been established to facilitate its improvement using conventional breeding. However, the inherent limitations of this breeding method and the continuous progress in crop genomics necessitated its complementation by molecular tools. Modern plant breeding approaches involving molecular markers, such as marker assisted breeding, QTL mapping, gene mining and genetic transformation including gene editing have been used to develop new varieties in several crop species.

Tef and most other orphan crops particularly millets are resilient to marginal environments in which they are extensively cultivated (Tadele, 2016). Compared to most other cereals, tef is relatively tolerant to abiotic and biotic stresses. However, they suffer from low productivity (Tadele, 2019). Crop productivity can be enhanced through intensification (Tadele, 2017). In general, little is known on the mechanisms of tolerance of tef to abiotic stresses in particular as this pertains to the physiology aspects. Physiological studies on tef will benefit from recent omics on tef. For instance, the whole genome sequence of tef (Cannarozzi et al., 2014; VanBuren et al., 2020) and related Eragrostis species with desirable properties (Pardo et al., 2020; Carballo et al., 2019) can be used to relate physiologically important traits to genes and genomic regions. Similarly, the recent proteomic study from drought affected tef plants (Kamies et al., 2017) and miRNAs from moisture limited tef plants (Martinelli et al., 2018) provide valuable findings. The recent completion of the genome sequence of extremely drought tolerant or resurrection E. nindensis (Pardo et al., 2020) and lodging tolerant E. curvula (Carballo et al., 2019) will play key role in advancing our knowledge on tef. Future research on tef improvement requires strong partnership among stakeholders which include donors, policy makers, research institutions, and farmers (Cannarozzi et al., 2018a).

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.

Tef production has expanded from time to time. However, the national average yield is still low due to several constraints including the use of poor crop management practices by farmers. Tef is cultivated with intensive seedbed preparations involving 3 to 5 passes in semi-arid and 5 to 8 passes in humid areas of the country. Planting of tef requires a firm and moist seedbed. The optimum sowing time for tef ranges from early-July to mid-August based on the soil type and the onset the rainfall as well as the length of growing period. Early sowing is the common practice on light soils, while late sowing is practiced on heavy black soils. However, calendar-based sowing date has not been working very well particularly in recent years due to climate change. Hence, it is important to adjust the sowing date based on the onset and cessation of the rainfall and moisture content of the soil.

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)

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.