Vol. 9(5), pp. 169-177, October 2021
https://doi.org/10.14662/arjasr2021290
Copyright 2021
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article
ISSN: 2360-7874
http://www.academicresearchjournals.org/ARJASR/Index.htm
 

Research paper

Breeding for Quality improvement in Tef (Eragrostis tef)

 

Werkissa Yali

 

Chiro National Sorghum Research and Training Centre, P.O.BOX 190, Chiro, Ethiopia Corresponding author’s Email: workissayali@gmail.com "Arial","sans-serif""> 

 

Date of Submission: 8 August 2021 Accepted 27 October 2021

Abstract

Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is one among the foremost stable food crop originated and diversified in Ethiopia. It’s highly preferred by Ethiopian people for consumption as food, especially its good nutrition content and freed from protein referred to as gluten. Additionally, tef used as sources of income in order that most of the farmers again like better to produce tef. Thus, the development of tef is primarily important to maximize productivity. Since tef breeding program was started during the late 1950s. From the initial so far several attempts are through with the satisfactory result. During this era over forty-two varieties were released and therefore the yield was relatively increased. There are constraints that require to be addressed through a research project. The main constraints are the low yield of landrace cultivars under widespread cultivation, susceptibility to lodging and a scarcity of knowledge concerning the genetic control of agronomic traits. Yield gain from tef breeding has been linear with a mean annual increase of 0.8%. Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] could also be a cereal crop resilient to adverse climatic and soil conditions, and possessing desirable storage properties. Although tef provides top-quality food and grows under marginal conditions unsuitable for other cereals, it's considered to be an orphan crop because it's benefited little from genetic improvement. Hence, unlike other cereals like maize and wheat, the productivity of tef is extremely low. In spite of the low productivity, tef is widely cultivated by over six million small-scale farmers in Ethiopia where it's annually grown on quite three million hectares of land, accounting for over 30% of the entire cereal acreage. It’s highly preferred by Ethiopian people for consumption as food, especially its good nutrition content and freed from protein referred to as gluten. Therefore, this review paper presented the role of breeding in the quality improvement of tef.

 

Key words: Colletotrichum, Mycelia, Fungicides, Conidia, Mancozeb

 

How to cite this article (APA Style): Werkissa, Y. (2021). Breeding for Quality improvement in Tef (Eragrostis tef). Acad. Res. J. Agri. Sci. Res. 9(5): 169-177