Abstract
The study was conducted during 2013/14 main cropping season in Ebinat district with the aim of studying the effects of seeding rates and row sowing methods on growth, yield and yield components of tef. Planting material of improved tef variety ‘Quencho’ (DZ-01-387) was used as a test crop for the experiments. Two factors of 3 seeding rates of (5, 7.5 & 10 kg/ha) and 3 inter-row spacing of (15cm, 20cm & 25cm) were combined to form 9 treatment. The treatments were laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Days to 50% emergence, days to 50% heading, days to 90% physiological maturity, plant population. Total tiller number per plant, effective tiller, plant height, panicle length, number of spikelet’s per panicle, biomass and straw yield, thousand seed weight, grain yield and harvest index were the important attributes used for data collection. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for all parameters were computed with SAS 9.0 software and mean separation was done using least significance difference (LSD). The results of ANOVA analyses showed that sowing method of days to 50% emergence, days to 50%heading, days to 90% physiological maturity, total number of tillers per plant, number of effective tillers, thousand seed weight and number of spikelet’s per panicle were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by the main effects of seeding rates and inter-row spacing, while plant population, plant height and grain yield were highly significantly (P<0.01) affected by the main effects of the seeding rates and inter-row spacing. Biomass and straw yields as well as harvest index were not significantly affected by seeding rates and inter-row spacing. Furthermore, the interaction effect plant population and grain yields were highly significantly (P<0.01), affected by seeding rates and inter-row spacing. While plant height, biomass yield and thousand seed weight were significant (P<0.05) influenced. In general, the present study investigated under sowing methods of grain yield was gained 25.75% over all the treatments. Sowing method of seeding rate of 5 kg/ha and 25cm of row spacing were found to be the best resourcefully advantageous over the rest treatments.
Highlights
Tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) is the most important and traditional staple cereal crop in Ethiopia and is grown extensively under various climatic and soil conditions
Field experiment was conducted in Ebinat Districts, South Gondar, Ethiopia to determine Effect of Sowing Methods of inter row spacing and Seeding Rates on Growth, yield and Yield Components of Tef
Days to 90% physiological maturity, panicle length, 1000 seed weight and grain yield were significantly affected by seeding rates in row sowing
Summary
Tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) is the most important and traditional staple cereal crop in Ethiopia and is grown extensively under various climatic and soil conditions. Tef in Ethiopia is first rank in area of production (3.07 M ha) and second ranks in terms of production (5.4 M t) which followed by Maize It is productivity (1.17 t ha-1) is very low as compared with productivity of other grain cereal crops yield potential [9] [7], reported that tef is the staple food of most Ethiopian people, the present production system cannot satisfy the consumers demand. This is because that farmers use backward farming system which is not supported by modern technologies. The row method of sowing at much reduced rate of seeding would increase tef yield by four fold over that of broadcast method of sowing which is normally practiced by farmers at high seeding rate
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