Search

Tef is the major staple food crop for Ethiopia which is cultivated by more than 6.7 million smallholder farmers. As an indigenous cereal, it is well adapted to diverse climatic and soil conditions; however, its productivity is very low mainly due to susceptibility to lodging. The objective of this study was to identify stable, high yielding and lodging tolerant tef genotypes for moisture stress areas of the country. A total of twenty genotypes including standard and local checks were tested. The field experiment was conducted using a 2m x 2m area with a completely randomized block design at six locations (Debre Zeit, Minjar, Alemtena, Melkassa, Sirinka and Axum) during the 2019 and 2020 main cropping seasons. Data were taken on plot and individual plant basis on eight pheno-agro-morphological characters including days to heading, days to maturity, grain filling period, plant height, panicle length, lodging index, above-ground shoot biomass and grain yield. The combined analysis of variance showed that the mean squares due to genotypes, locations and genotype interactions were highly significant (P

Tef [Eragrostis Tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is an indigenous and yet the principal cereal in Ethiopia in terms of acreage, production and cash crop value to the smallholder Ethiopian farmers. The crop is highly valued by both farmers and consumers because of its unique features that render it with a multitude of relative merits over the other cereals grown in the country with respect to both farming and utilization aspects. Although the crop has in recent years been gaining global popularity as “health and performance food”, the cultivation of Tef as a cereal grain crop for food in the world has still remained almost exclusively restricted mainly in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and in small quantities in South Africa, and very recently in the United States of America, the Netherlands, Spain and Israel. Consequently, the genetic improvement of the crop practically rests upon domestic efforts with little or no technical and financial support from international and other foreign research establishments and donors. Scientific Tef improvement research in Ethiopia started in the late 1950s, and history puts it that Tef breeding was first started in 1960 through collection of farmers’ varieties and selections (mass and pure-line) of desirable types from the germplasm in 1960 at the then Central Experiment Station now Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, of the then Imperial College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (now Haramaya University). Over the years, several breeding approaches were used including induced mutation techniques, recombination through intra and inter-specific hybridization, participatory breeding and variety selection, in vitro cultures and other recent high throughput breeding and genomic techniques such as TILLING, molecular marker systems, and genome or gene editing via CRISPR/Cas9. In the Tef breeding program, various seemingly standard approaches and methods have been used by the researchers. Nevertheless, the methods are passed over from generations to generations of researchers simply by experience sharing and oral instructions along with learning of new researchers on the practical undertaking from their predecessors and/or even senior technical assistants. This “Tef Breeding Manual” is, therefore, primarily meant for filling this gap and providing a written document that can serve as a guideline for researchers engaged in Tef breeding. In its preparation, due attempts have been made to learn from and elucidate, as necessary, approaches adopted in the preparation of other similar crop breeding manuals such as that of wheat, sorghum and maize in Ethiopia. Last but not least, it should be emphasized that this manual is not static, but rather dynamic being subject to periodic amendments, additions and changes as the needs arise especially due to new developments in the art and science of crop breeding.

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

Tef is the most important and well adapted cereal crop in Ethiopia and grows better than other cereals both in biotic and abiotic stress conditions. In this study 93 tef accessions representative of various agro-ecologies of Ethiopia along with four improved varieties, one local check and six wild relatives were studied. The materials were genotyped with 12 simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs) to investigate the extent and structure of the genetic diversity of tef. A total of 152 alleles were detected indicating high polymorphism in the studied accessions. The number of alleles per polymorphic loci ranged from seven for CNLT 538 to 29 for CNLT150 with an average of 12.67. High average polymorphic information content (0.82) and average expected heterozygosity (0.86) also signifies the suitability and efficiency of SSR markers to discriminate among tef genotypes. Cluster, principal coordinate and structure analyses grouped the 98 tef genotypes and six wild relatives into four distinct classes. The groupings showed no special pattern despite the different regions of origins for the accessions; however, the five wild relatives were grouped together. The analysis of molecular variance and fixation index showed low genetic differentiation and high gene flow between regions revealing that much of the variability was attributed to within populations variation. Generally, the present study showed that there is high genetic variability with unstructured genetic pattern among the studied tef genotypes which implies the vitality of conserved tef germplasms at Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute and the impact of the seed exchange system on tef breeding activities in Ethiopia.

Aims: To assess the extent and pattern of genetic diversity in major qualitative and quantitative traits of tef accessions based on collection altitudes, and administrative regions and zones. Study Design: Randomized complete Block Design with three replications. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Debre Zeit and Holetta Research Centers in 2015 main cropping season. Methodology: One hundred forty-four tef accessions collected from the Northern and Central Ethiopia were evaluated using five qualitative and seven quantitative traits. Microsoft Excel and Shannon-Weaver diversity index were used to determine the extent of genetic variations while cluster analysis based on the standardized data of various qualitative and quantitative traits was employed to group the accessions and collection altitudes, zones and regions. Results: Yellowish white lemma, loose panicle, white seed, four internodes and green basal stalk were found to be the predominant phenotypic classes of the studied qualitative traits. The highest mean Shannon diversity was observed for panicle forms (0.396) followed by seed colour (0.370) while the lowest value was for basal stalk colour (0.083). Accessions from Oromia Regional State had the highest mean Shannon diversity and grain yield compared to the other two Regional States. Similarly, accessions from South Wello and West Shewa administrative zones had the highest mean Shannon diversity and highest grain yield, respectively. Besides, accessions from altitudes below 1500 m above sea level (a. s. l.) and from 2001 to 2500 m a. s. l. also had the highest mean diversity and highest mean grain yield, respectively. In cluster analysis, dendrogram constructed based on five qualitative and seven quantitative traits grouped the accessions, collection regions, zones and altitudes into six, two, four and three distinct clusters, respectively. Conclusion: The present study generally revealed huge diversity among tef accessions collected from different regional states, administrative zones and altitudes which can be harnessed in future improvement of this understudied crop.

Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is a multipurpose crop extensively cultivated in southern and southwestern Ethiopia for human food, animal feed, and fiber. It has immense contributions to the food security and rural livelihoods of 20 million people. Several distinct enset landraces are cultivated for their uses in traditional medicine. These landraces are vulnerable to various human-related activities and environmental constraints. The genetic diversity among the landraces is not verified to plan conservation strategy. Moreover, it is currently unknown whether medicinal landraces are genetically differentiated from other landraces. Here, we characterize the genetic diversity of medicinal enset landraces to support effective conservation and utilization of their diversity. We evaluated the genetic diversity of 51 enset landraces, of which 38 have reported medicinal value. A total of 38 alleles across the 15 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci and a moderate level of genetic diversity (He = 0.47) were detected. Analysis of molecular variation (AMOVA) revealed that only 2.4% of the total genetic variation was contributed by variation among the medicinal and non-medicinal groups of landraces, with an FST of 0.024. A neighbor-joining tree showed four separate clusters with no correlation to the use-values of the landraces. Except for two, all “medicinal” landraces with distinct vernacular names were found to be genetically different, showing that vernacular names are a good indicator of genetic distinctiveness in these specific groups of landraces. The discriminant analysis of the principal components also confirmed the absence of distinct clustering between the two groups. We found that enset landraces were clustered irrespective of their use-value, showing no evidence for genetic differentiation between the enset grown for ‘medicinal’ uses and non-medicinal landraces. This suggests that enset medicinal properties may be restricted to a more limited number of genotypes, might have resulted from the interaction of genotype with the environment or management practice, or partly misreported. The study provides baseline information that promotes further investigations in exploiting the medicinal value of these specific landraces.

Mung bean is an important pulse crop grown by poor farmers in marginal and drought-prone areas of Ethiopia. Information on the extent of genetic divergence in mung bean is vital to identify diverse genotypes for crop improvement and the efficient utilization of the existing genetic resources. Therefore, the objectives of the study were to assess the extent and pattern of morphological diversity among the mung bean genotypes and to identify the traits contributing to the genetic diversity using multivariate analyses. The experiment was conducted using 60 mung bean genotypes at Jinka Agricultural Research Center during the 2018 cropping season. The first seven principal components explained 80.1% of the total variation. Almost all the studied traits were important contributors to the divergence. The cluster analysis based on quantitative traits revealed four distinct groups. The highest inter-cluster distance was recorded between cluster I and cluster IV (D 2 = 43.16 units). The minimum inter-cluster distance was noted between cluster III and cluster IV (D2 = 12.16 units). The maximum and minimum intra-cluster distances D2 were recorded within cluster I (D2 = 6.49 units) and cluster III (D2 = 3.53 units), respectively). The range of intra and inter-cluster distance was 3.53 to 6.49 units and 12.16 to 43.16 units, respectively. Hence, the high genetic distance exhibited within and among clusters has to be exploited through the crossing and selection of the most divergent parents for future mung bean breeding programs.

Tef is a resilient crop from the Horn of Africa with significant importance in food and nutrition security, and currently gaining global popularity as health and performance food. Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is the most important cereal of Ethiopia in terms of production, consumption and cash crop value. In Ethiopia, tef is annually grown on about 3 million ha with total grain production of over 5 million tons. As such, it accounts for about 30% of the total cultivated area and one-fifth of the gross grain production of all cereals cultivated in the country. In spite of its supreme economic and agricultural significance in Ethiopia, its productivity is relatively low with national average yield of about 1.7 t/ha. This has primarily been due to the very little scientific improvement done on the crop. Tef has still been an “orphan crop” since it is globally a very much under-researched crop owing to its localized importance. Scientific research on tef in Ethiopia began in the late 1950s. The main objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the significance and major production constraints of tef, and the major achievements made to date in various tef research aspects including breeding, agronomy, crop protection, and agricultural economics and extension. Based on these reviews, the paper eventually concludes with remarks on the way forward by emphasizing on the identification of the major gaps and the improvement efforts required for realizing the ever-needed breakthrough in the productivity and production of the crop. The major focal areas of future efforts include increasing productivity of both grain and biomass, systematic conservation and mining of the genetic resources, tackling the lodging malady, mechanization of the crop’s husbandry, understanding the overall physiology of the crop especially with respect to stress tolerance, unraveling the nutritional qualities, and development of recipes and value-added products.

Tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) is a staple food crop for 70% of the Ethiopian population and is currently cultivated in several countries for grain and forage production. It is one of the most nutritious grains, and is also more resilient to marginal soil and climate conditions than major cereals such as maize, wheat and rice. However, tef is an extremely low-yielding crop, mainly due to lodging, which is when stalks fall on the ground irreversibly, and prolonged drought during the growing season. Climate change is triggering several biotic and abiotic stresses which are expected to cause severe food shortages in the foreseeable future. This has necessitated an alternative and robust approach in order to improve resilience to diverse types of stresses and increase crop yields. Traditional breeding has been extensively implemented to develop crop varieties with traits of interest, although the technique has several limitations. Currently, genome editing technologies are receiving increased interest among plant biologists as a means of improving key agronomic traits. In this review, the potential application of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated proteins (CRISPR-Cas) technology in improving stress resilience in tef is discussed. Several putative abiotic stress-resilient genes of the related monocot plant species have been discussed and proposed as target genes for editing in tef through the CRISPR-Cas system. This is expected to improve stress resilience and boost productivity, thereby ensuring food and nutrition security in the region where it is needed the most.

Tef [ Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is an indigenous Ethiopian cereal which helps provide healthy and nutritious diets for people and a palatable straw for livestock feed. This study was conducted to determine the variation in grain-straw yield and straw quality traits of 35 tef varieties and a local check grown in two locations for two years. Straw crude protein (CP), in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD), metabolizable energy (ME) and the yields of grain (GY) and straw (STY) were significantly (P < 0.01) affected by variety, environment and their interactions. GY, CP, ME and IVOMD were significantly higher in the Debre Zeit site compared to Holetta and, except for GY, in 2016 compared to 2015. About 150% and 25% higher mean CP content was recorded in Debre Zeit than in Holetta, and in 2016 than 2015, respectively. Positive and significant (PMelko produced the highest grain-straw yield and best fodder quality traits. Based on the yields and qualities of both grain and straw, the production of Gimbichu , Quncho and Gola varieties conferred more than 40% economic advantage over the local check in the local markets. Our study generally identified varieties with high grain-straw yield and/or straw quality traits which provided economic advantages for tef production and an opportunity for future utilization in tef improvement programs.

Background Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is a multipurpose crop extensively cultivated in southern and southwestern Ethiopia for human food, animal feed and fiber. It contributes to the food security and rural livelihoods of 20 million people. Several distinct enset landraces are cultivated for their uses in traditional medicine. Socio-economic changes and the loss of indigenous knowledge might lead to the decline of important medicinal landraces and their associated genetic diversity. However, it is currently unknown whether medicinal landraces are genetically differentiated from other landraces. Here, we characterize the genetic diversity of medicinal enset landraces to support effective conservation and utilization of their diversity Results We evaluated the genetic diversity of 51 enset landraces of which 38 have reported medicinal value. A total of 38 alleles were detected across the 15 SSR loci. AMOVA revealed that 97.6% of the total genetic variation is among individual with an FST of 0.024 between medicinal and non-medicinal landraces. A neighbor-joining tree showed four separate clusters with no correlation to the use values of the landraces. Principal coordinate analysis also confirmed the absence of distinct clustering between the groups, showing low differentiation among landraces used in traditional medicine and those having other use values. Conclusion We found that enset landraces were clustered irrespective of their use value, showing no evidence for genetic differentiation between enset grown for ‘medicinal’ uses and non-medicinal landraces. This suggests that enset medicinal properties may be restricted to a more limited number of genotypes, a product of interaction with the environment or management practice, or partly misreported. The study provide baseline information that promotes further investigations in exploiting the medicinal value of these specific landraces

BackgroundEnset (Ensete ventricosum) is a multipurpose crop extensively cultivated in southern and southwestern Ethiopia for human food, animal feed and fiber. It contributes to the food security and rural livelihoods of 20 million people. Several distinct enset landraces are cultivated for their uses in traditional medicine. Socio-economic changes and the loss of indigenous knowledge might lead to the decline of important medicinal landraces and their associated genetic diversity. However, it is currently unknown whether medicinal landraces are genetically differentiated from other landraces. Here, we characterize the genetic diversity of medicinal enset landraces to support effective conservation and utilization of their diversityResultsWe evaluated the genetic diversity of 51 enset landraces of which 38 have reported medicinal value. A total of 38 alleles were detected across the 15 SSR loci. AMOVA revealed that 97.6% of the total genetic variation is among individual with an FST of 0.024 between medicinal and non-medicinal landraces. A neighbor-joining tree showed four separate clusters with no correlation to the use values of the landraces. Principal coordinate analysis also confirmed the absence of distinct clustering between the groups, showing low differentiation among landraces used in traditional medicine and those having other use values.ConclusionWe found that enset landraces were clustered irrespective of their use value, showing no evidence for genetic differentiation between enset grown for ‘medicinal’ uses and non-medicinal landraces. This suggests that enset medicinal properties may be restricted to a more limited number of genotypes, a product of interaction with the environment or management practice, or partly misreported. The study provide baseline information that promotes further investigations in exploiting the medicinal value of these specific landraces

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. Similar to 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 favourable crops by both farmers and consumers. The ability of orphan crops to grow under extreme environmental conditions indicates their prospect in the changing climate. However, due to little scientific improvement, orphan crops produce inferior yield in terms of both the quantity and quality. The recent efforts by some researchers and institutions at the national and global levels have advanced the improvement of few orphan crops.

Single crystal of γ-glycine, a polymorphic form of glycine, was grown by slow solvent evaporation technique by the additive of lithium bromide. It was grown from the aqueous solution of glycine and lithium bromide in 2:1 M ratio respectively at room temperature. Good quality of γ-glycine single crystals was harvested up to the dimension of 25 × 22 × 20 mm3. In order to reveal its properties, the grown single crystals were subjected to various characterizations. Powder X-ray diffraction of the grown crystal was recorded and indexed. The unit cell parameters of the crystals were estimated by single crystal x-ray diffraction and they were compared with the literature values. The identification of the functional groups and hence the compound present in the crystalline sample by FTIR analysis confirms the polymorphic form of glycine. Optical transmittance studies were carried out by UV–Vis-NIR transmission spectrum in the range of 200–1100 nm wavelength. The powdered sample of the crystal was subjected to Kurtz Perry powder technique to find the coefficient of Second harmonic generation. The second harmonic generation (SHG) conversion efficiency of γ-glycine crystal is more than twice when compared with KDP crystal. The grown γ-glycine crystal was further characterized by Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and Differential thermal analysis, to find its thermal stability and decomposition temperature. Dielectric constant and Dielectric loss were determined at different frequencies with respect to various temperatures. The mechanical properties such as microhardness and yield strength were evaluated by Vicker’s microhardness tester.

Introduction: Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is the major food crop in Ethiopia where it is annually cultivated on about 30% of the total area allocated to cereals. The productivity of tef is, however, significantly reduced by drought which can occur at either the early or the late developmental stage of the crop. Methodology: A total of 10,000 EMS (ethyl methane sulfonate) mutagenized M2 tef populations were screened first for early and second for terminal drought tolerance. The performance of candidate lines was investigated using diverse agronomical and physiological parameters. Results and discussion: Several promising lines were obtained for both early and terminal drought tolerance. Among these, genotypes with outstanding performance were found for two drought tolerant tef lines targeting early drought tolerance (dtt2 and dtt13) and three terminal drought tolerant lines targeting terminal drought tolerance (tdt9, tdt15 and tdt19). Conclusions: Candidate lines for both early and terminal drought tolerance will play vital roles in developing drought tolerance in tef improvement.

Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter], a staple food crop in the Horn of Africa and particularly in Ethiopia, has several beneficial agronomical and nutritional properties, including waterlogging and drought tolerance. In this study, we performed microRNA profiling of tef using the Illumina HiSeq 2500 platform, analyzing both shoots and roots of two tef genotypes, one drought-tolerant (Tsedey) and one drought-susceptible (Alba). We obtained more than 10 million filtered reads for each of the 24 sequenced small cDNA libraries. Reads mapping to known miRNAs were more abundant in the root than shoot tissues. Thirteen and 35 miRNAs were significantly modulated in response to drought, in Alba and Tsedey roots, respectively. One miRNA was upregulated under drought conditions in both genotypes. In shoots, nine miRNAs were modulated in common between the two genotypes and all showed similar trends of expression. One-hundred and forty-seven new miRNA mature sequences were identified in silico, 22 of these were detected in all relevant samples and seven were differentially regulated when comparing drought with normal watering. Putative targets of the miRNA regulated under drought in root and shoot tissues were predicted. Among the targets were transcription factors such as CCAAT-HAP2, MADS and NAC. Verification with qRT-PCR revealed that five of six potential targets showed a pattern of expression that was consistent with the correspondent miRNA amount measured by RNA-Seq. In general, candidate miRNAs involved in the post-transcriptional regulation of the tef response to drought could be included in next-generation breeding programs.

Due to significant contributions of orphan crops in the economy of the developing world, scientific studies need to be promoted on these little researched but vital crops of smallholder farmers and consumers. Food security is the main challenge in the developing world, particularly in the least developed countries. Orphan crops play a vital role in the food security and livelihood of resource-poor farmers and consumers in these countries. Like major crops, there are members of all food types—cereals, legumes, vegetables and root and tuber crops, that are considered to be orphan crops. Despite their huge importance for present and future agriculture, orphan crops have generally received little attention by the global scientific community. Due to this, they produce inferior yields in terms of both quantity and quality. The major bottlenecks affecting the productivity of these crops are little or no selection of improved genetic traits, extreme environmental conditions and unfavorable policy. However, some orphan crops have recently received the attention of the global and national scientific community where advanced research and development initiatives have been launched. These initiatives which implement a variety of genetic and genomic tools targeted major constraints affecting productivity and/or nutritional quality of orphan crops. In this paper, some of these initiatives are briefly described. Here, I provide key suggestions to relevant stakeholders regarding improvement of orphan crops. Concerted efforts are urgently needed to advance the research and development of both the major and orphan crops so that food security will be achieved and ultimately the livelihood of the population will be improved.

Aims: To assess the magnitude of genotype by environment interaction; possible existence of different mega-environments; and discriminating ability and representativeness of the testing environments. Study Design: Randomized complete Block Design with three replications. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Debre Zeit, Holetta and Alem Tena for two years (2015 and 2016) and at Adet, Axum and Bako for one year (2015). Methodology: Thirty-five improved tef varieties were evaluated at nine environments. The G × E interaction were quantified using additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and the genotype and genotype by environment (GGE) biplot models. Results: Combined analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P = 0.01) variations due to genotype, environment and genotype by environment interaction effects. AMMI analysis revealed 4.3%, 79.7% and 16% variation in grain yield due to genotypes, environments and G x E effects, respectively. G6 gave the highest mean grain yield (3.33 t/ha) over environments whereas G29 gave the lowest mean yield (2.49 t/ha). The GGE biplot grouped the nine testing environments and the 35 genotypes into four mega environments and seven genotypic groups. The four mega environments include: G-I (E1, E4 and E6); G-II (E2, E3, E7 and E8); G-III (E9), and G-IV (E5). E5, E6, E7 and E8 which had the longest vector were the most discriminating of all environments while, E1 and E4 which had the smallest angle with the average environmental axis were the most representative of all environments. Regarding genotypes, G6, G25, G34 and G16 were identified as the best yielding and relatively stable genotypes to increase tef productivity. Conclusion: AMMI and GGE were found to be efficient in grouping the tef growing environments and genotypes.

Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) is a multipurpose food security crop extensively cultivated in southern and southwestern parts of Ethiopia. In addition to its wide consumption as a source of food and feed, some enset landraces are also used as a traditional medicine in some parts of the country. However, the latter are becoming vulnerable to various human-related activities and environmental constraints. The main objective of this study was, therefore, to investigate the diversity that exist in enset landraces used for traditional medicine. A field study was conducted in four Administrative Zones and one special District in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region in Ethiopia. A total of 14 qualitative traits were employed to investigate the diversity in 40 landraces through field observation, color charts and focus group discussion. The data were analyzed using SAS and MINITAB softwares. Principal component analysis showed that the first four principal components accounted for 77% of the total variations and classified the landraces into four distinct groups. Similarly, cluster analysis grouped the landraces into four major clusters each containing 4–15 landraces. In general, the 14 phenotypic traits used in this study are important in discriminating the landraces indicating the existence of high genetic diversity among the landraces which needs to be conserved for the future.

Tef or teff [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter], a cereal crop which adapts to extreme climatic and soil conditions, is extensively cultivated in the Horn of Africa. It is also considered as nutritious and a life-style crop due to its richness in essential nutrients and health-related benefits. However, the productivity of the crop is extremely low due to little scientific improvement made globally. It is, therefore, in the category of orphan crops. Together with all cereal crops, tef belongs to the Grass or Poaceae family. The improvement of tef focuses on selection and hybridization techniques. However, recently, molecular and high-throughput techniques have also been implemented to a limited scale. Forty-two tef varieties were approved for release by the Ethiopian National Variety Release Committee in the past four decades. Due to the adoption of improved varieties and technologies, the national average yield of tef has more than doubled over the last 20 years. This review describes the progress in tef breeding and variety development as well as dissemination of the improved varieties to the farming community.

Synopsis Orphan crops, which are also known by different names, include diverse types of cereals, legumes, root and tubers as well as fruits. They play key role in food security and livelihood of smallholder farmers and consumers in the developing world. Despite their resilience to marginal environments where they are extensively grown, orphan crops are challenged by different types of constraints which include, biotic stresses, abiotic stresses, plant-related constraints and constraints related to enabling environment.

Tef is widely cultivated grain crop in Ethiopia by concerning 6.5 million smallholder farmers on about 30% of the full-scale region distributed to cereal crops. The goal of this experiment was to identify and release stable and high yielding tef genotype for moisture stress areas of country and to determine and understand the effect of genotype, environment, and their interaction on grain yield of tef. Fourteen selected tef genotypes obtained from two autonomous crosses and progressed through alternative for a minimum of eight generations, and a local and standard check varieties, were tested over a two years at seven tef growing sites in moisture stress areas of Ethiopia namely Debre Zeit, Alemetena, Dhera, Axum, Sirinka, Minjar and Mehoni, using randomized complete block design with four replications. Among the genotype tested, DZ-Cr-387 x 3774-13(RIL120B) was found predominant in terms of yield at tested moisture stress environments. This genotype was obtained through targeted cross between DZ-Cr-387 (Quncho) selected as a maternal parent for its high yielding capability and wide adaptability and, 3774-13 as a pollen parent for its extraordinarily white seed quality and earliness. The genotype DZ-Cr-387 x 3774-13(RIL120B) gave the average grain yield 2740 kgha-1 pooled across all environments. This genotype "DZ-Cr-387 x 3774-13(RIL120B)” was later released as DZ-Cr-453(RIL 120B) or Bora by the National Variety Release Committee in 2019, and with a yield advantage of 5.7% and 24.48% over the standard (Boset) and local check, respectively.

Tef is a foremost staple cereal crop with considerable role in the domestic GDP of Ethiopia. In diverse parts of Ethiopia, declining levels and high variability of rainfall is among the main causes for low crop productivity. Therefore, the study was designed to assess, pinpoint and recommend promising tef breeding lines suitable for irrigation farming conditions in the semi-arid, temperate and cool sub-humid agro-ecologies of Ethiopia. The experimental plant materials comprised forty- nine tef genotypes including forty seven recombinant inbred lines (RILs) and two standard checks varieties Quncho and Boset. The forty-seven RILs were out-sourced from three simple crosses of four parental lines. The field experiment was conducted using 7×7 simple lattice designs at three locations (Mehoni, Koga and Werer) during 2016 and 2017. Data were taken on plot and individual plant basis on nine pheno-agro-morphological characters including days to heading and to maturity, grain filling period, plant height, culm length, panicle length, above-ground shoot biomass, grain yield and harvest index. The three locations displayed highly significant (P

The Ethiopian garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) is an important crop extensively used as food and medicine. In this study, total seed storage proteins of 112 garden cress genotypes collected from diverse growing regions in Ethiopia were investigated to assess patterns of genetic diversity and relationships. Using sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), a total of 1774 stable protein bands were identified through discontinuous electrophoresis. Of these, 1597 bands were polymorphic. A maximum of 20 protein sub-units in the range of 15 to 75 kDa were observed per genotype. The similarity coefficient among these genotypes ranged from 0.25 to 1.00 with an average genetic dissimilarity of 0.2754. On the basis of Ward Euclidian distance, the genotypes were grouped into five major clusters, the largest one comprised of 62 genotypes (Cluster III) followed by 26 genotypes in Cluster I. Cluster IV and V contained a total of 14 genotypes that were the most distantly related to other groups, and thus can be potentially used as parents for exploitation of heterotic effects in hybrid breeding programs. Our findings using SDS-PAGE profiles revealed no obvious association between geographic region of origin and germplasm clustering. However, the polymorphism and cluster analysis indicated that garden cress genotypes differed greatly in the composition of seed proteins. This shows that protein profiling could be used as a rapid and reliable method for genetic diversity studies. In order to fully explore the protein based genetic diversity in garden cress germplasm, techniques such as 2-D gel electrophoresis are recommended in future studies. Key words: Cluster analysis, dissimilarity index, garden cress, Lepidium sativum, protein polymorphism, protein profiling, sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), seed storage protein.

Breeding for moisture stress tolerance by conventional methods is not satisfactory in view of current demand to increase crop productivity. Inducing somaclonal variation is a potential technique to obtain stress tolerant variants. The present study was conducted to evaluate the performance of tef somaclones (R1 generation) and their respective parental genotypes for drought tolerance. The materials used in this experiment were obtained from the R0 generation of previous in vitro culture experiment. Twelve seed derived somaclones; Melko 0, Melko 0.5, Melko 1, Melko 1.5, Gemechis 0, Gemechis 0.5, Gemechis 1, Gemechis 1.5, Pop12S20, Pop12S20.5, Pop12S21 and Pop12S21.5 and their respective parental genotypes (Melko, Gemechis and Pop12S2) were used under two set of experiments (i.e., under moisture stress and non-stress conditions) in pots under green house. The experiments were laid out in completely randomized design with three replications. Analysis of variance revealed that somaclones (R1 generation) and their parental genotypes showed highly significant (P ≤ 0.01) difference in all the measured traits under both moisture regimes. Comparisons were made between the somaclones and their parents under moisture stress and non-stress conditions for the measured traits. Under moisture stress condition superiority of the somaclones was observed except for number of spikelet/panicle and total number of tiller/plant. On the other hand, under non-stress condition better performance was observed from parental genotypes for number of spikelet/ panicle, panicle weight, panicle seed weight, plant weight, plant seed weight and grain yield. The results showed that all the somaclones and their parental genotypes were negatively affected by moisture stress for all studied parameters. However, somaclones were less affected by moisture stress as compared to the parental genotypes. Hence, in vitro culture induced somaclonal variation can effectively be used for selection and improvement of drought tolerant tef genotypes.

Aims: The use of multivariate techniques is an important strategy for germplasm classification and study of genetic relationships among genotypes. This study was designed to evaluate using multivariate analysis the genetic divergence among 112 garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.) genotypes collected from different Administrative Zones of Ethiopia. Methodology: The experiment was conducted at Haramaya University Research Site and Kulumsa farmer field. Twelve agro-morphological traits were evaluated in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two replications. Region-wise analyses of variance, principal component and cluster analyses were applied. Results: The analysis of diversity pattern based on the region of genotype origin revealed highly significant variability within and between regions of origin for almost all studied traits. The geographical pattern of distributions of genotypes in groups were not dependent on the regions of origin. The first three principal components explained 80.3% of the total variations suggesting that traits such as number of secondary branches, days to maturity, plant height, biomass/plant and biomass/plot, harvest index, grain yield/plant, thousand seed weight and grain yield/ha are the principal discriminatory traits in the germplasm studied. The cluster analysis categorised the 112 genotypes into six groups. The most diverse genotypes were found between cluster I and II which could be used for producing new genetic variability and exploitation of heterotic effects with the traits of interest in crossing programs. Conclusion: The genetic diversity existing in the current study could be utilised in the genetic improvement of the Ethiopian garden cress germplasm.

Diversity has not been exhaustively studied in the Ethiopian garden cress (Lepidium sativum L.). Therefore, the objective of the present study was to determine the genetic diversity among garden cress genotypes using microsatellite or simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. One hundred twelve garden cress genotypes collected from diverse growing regions of Ethiopia were investigated using 12 SSR markers which were earlier developed for closely related Lepidium subulatum. A total of 1387 alleles were identified, with the average of 116 alleles per SSR marker. The average polymorphism information content (PIC), Shannon diversity index and Nei’s expected heterozygosity were 0.444, 0.750 and 0.443, respectively. High levels of Shannon diversity were noted within population (0.696) than between populations (0.304). Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) also confirmed that 79% and 21% of total variations were attributed to the within- and between-populations, respectively, indicating greater exchange of gene pool across regions of origin. The genetic distance between populations ranged from 0.044 to 0.396. Cluster analysis using un-weighted neighbor joining method revealed five clusters. The Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) showed the distribution of genotypes in the scatter-plot was highly dispersed at 22% of the total variation, demonstrating complex genetic relationship among genotypes of different geographic origin. Genetic distance matrix among nine populations revealed three different groups to be used as divergent populations in the future breeding programs. Hence, these markers were effective in studying genetic diversity in the Ethiopian garden cress genotypes. Although the transferability of SSR markers from related species was found to be high, the efficiency of identifying more polymorphisms will be improved using garden cress specific markers. Keywords: Garden cress, Heterozygosity, Lepidium sativum, Microsatellites, Polymorphic information content, Shannon diversity index, SSR

Orphan crops are crops with little significance at the global scale but they play a vital role in the food and nutrition security as well as the livelihood of resource-poor farmers and consumers 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 indigenous-, lost-, minor-, promising-, and underutilized-crops, among other names (Tadele 2019). Although little scientific research has been done on most orphan crops, a limited number of them have enjoyed advanced studies. This has mainly been due to committed scientists and institutions in developing countries as well as financial and technical support from developed nations. Most orphan crops are resilient to extreme environmental conditions. Due to this adaptability to marginal and low input environments, orphan crops offer opportunities for low greenhouse gas emissions (Mabhaudhi et al. 2019). In addition, these indigenous crops provide nutrient-rich biodiversity and healthier diets to resource-poor consumers (Hunter et al. 2019). Due to multiple dietary benefits and their tolerance to extreme environmental conditions, some orphan crops are considered to be crops for the future.

About 15,000 M2 seeds of ethyl-methane-sulphonate (EMS)-mutagenized population were screened along with Al-tolerant and sensitive checks and the M0 variety. Strongly acidic soil with an external application of a toxic Al-solution and exposure to moisture stress was used to maximize selection pressure. Twenty-one M2 plants with root lengths of greater than the mean of the tolerant check were selected and planted for seed production. Candidate M3 plants were investigated for Al-tolerance and for morpho-agronomic traits under greenhouse and field conditions, respectively. Highly significant differences were observed for Al-tolerance between the candidate mutant lines and the M0 (P

9.1 Introduction 226 9.2 Origin and Taxonomy 227 9.3 Genetic Resources and Utilisation 232 9.4 Genetics and Cytogenetics 236 9.5 Reproductive Biology 240 9.6 Constraints in Tef Production 242 9.7 Genetic Improvement of Tef 245 9.8 Crop and Pest Management 256 9.9 Future Prospects 259 References 260

The orphan crop, Eragrostis tef, was subjected to controlled drought conditions to observe the physiological parameters and proteins changing in response to dehydration stress. Physiological measurements involving electrolyte leakage, chlorophyll fluorescence and ultra-structural analysis showed tef plants tolerated water loss to 50% relative water content (RWC) before adverse effects in leaf tissues were observed. Proteomic analysis using isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) mass spectrometry and appropriate database searching enabled the detection of 5727 proteins, of which 211 proteins, including a number of spliced variants, were found to be differentially regulated with the imposed stress conditions. Validation of the iTRAQ dataset was done with selected stress-related proteins, fructose-bisphosphate aldolase (FBA) and the protective antioxidant proteins, monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR) and peroxidase (POX). Western blot analyses confirmed protein presence and showed increased protein abundance levels during water deficit while enzymatic activity for FBA, MDHAR and POX increased at selected RWC points. Gene ontology (GO)-term enrichment and analysis revealed terms involved in biotic and abiotic stress response, signaling, transport, cellular homeostasis and pentose metabolic processes, to be enriched in tef upregulated proteins, while terms linked to reactive oxygen species (ROS)-producing processes under water-deficit, such as photosynthesis and associated light harvesting reactions, manganese transport and homeostasis, the synthesis of sugars and cell wall catabolism and modification, to be enriched in tef downregulated proteins.