Abstract
One of the major biotic stresses that limits tef yield is insect pests attack. Of these tef, shoot fly is sporadically important insect pest in various tef growing areas of Ethiopia. Evaluation of diversity of tef germplasm in Ethiopia for the reaction tef shoot fly might give a chance to get host plant resistance. The main objective of this study was to assess the genetic variation among tef genotypes for their reaction to tef shoot fly. Field experiment was conducted in 2015 cropping season at Maysiye, Northern Ethiopia. The genotypes were planted in triple lattice design with three replications category of reaction of the tested tef genotypes for their reaction to shoot fly attack was adopted from the rating scale of the IRRI for rice. The study revealed that acc. 17 WJ was found to be the only genotype evaluated as resistant to tef shoot fly Atherigona hyalinipennis species. While the standard checks Quncho and Kora were grouped under the susceptible category, generally 10 tef genotypes were moderately resistance, 19 genotypes were moderately susceptible, 16 genotypes were susceptible, and three genotypes were highly susceptible to tef shoot fly attack. Tef damage (dead heart and white headed) due to tef shoot fly ranged from 4.20 to 36.96%, respectively. The yield loss also varied from 3.58 to 97.83 kg ha-1. Infestation was high from the beginning of August to the end of September. Besides using the varieties grouped under resistance and moderately resistance category and chemical application at early stage infestation would be recommended to avoid yield loss. Further study over seasons and environments would be important to have a valid conclusion Key words: Shoot fly resistance, time of infestation, yield loss, tef genotypes.
Highlights
Tef (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter, is one of the major staple cereals of Ethiopia
The experimental material consisted of 49 genotypes of which 32 released tef varieties, 12 promising lines, three accessions collected from tigray region and two local landraces obtained from Deber Zeit Agricultural Research Center (DZARC), Axum Agriculture Research Centers and farmers, respectively used as standard checks
As plant resistant to insect pest is known to be due to antibiosis, tolerance and antixenosis (Abro et al, 2003), the mechanism of résistance observed for 17 WJ in the current study requires further investigation in order to reach at concrete conclusion
Summary
Ethiopia is the center of both origin and diversity for tef (Vavilov, 1951). Tef’s major yield limiting factors are the low yield potential of tef landrace, lack of cultivars tolerant to lodging, drought and pests (Assefa et al., 2011). One of the major biotic stresses that limits tef yield is insect pests attack. Among the 40 insect pest species recorded on tef, tef shoot fly
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