Abstract
The national average yield of Tef is low at 1.75 t ha-1. This is partially due to lack of high yielding Tef genotypes for different Tef growing areas. Therefore, the present study was designed to develop high yielding, and desirable quality of improved Tef varieties suitable for high and optimum potential farming systems. Eight recombinant inbred lines (RILs) developed from a cross of DZ-01-353 x kaymurri plus two checks were laid out in a randomized complete block design using four replications in multi-environments for two years (2013 and 2014) to see the effect of genotypes, environments and GEI. ANOVA from additive main effect and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) for grain yield revealed highly significant (p<0.01) effect for genotypes, environments, and genotype by environment interaction (GEI. The effect of environment, genotypes and genotype by environment interaction accounted for 81.49, 3.98 and 14.15% of the total sum squares, respectively. A large sum of squares for environments indicated that the test environments were diverse with large differences among environmental means which causing most of the variation in grain yield. Therefore, results of combined data analysis across locations and over the years showed that variety DZ- Cr- 429 (RIL 125)/Negus/ performed better and stable across five locations over two years among tested genotypes. Thus, variety Negus was identified and released as best promising Tef variety for production in high and optimum potential tef growing areas in the country. This variety should be used in similar agro ecologies to increase grain yield productivity and ensure food security in the country.
Highlights
Tef is the major Ethiopian cereal grown on 3.02 million hectares annually [4], and serving as staple food grain for over 73 million people in the country
The average annual genetic gain in tef grain yield was estimated as 0.8% from 1970 until 1995 [27] and o.58% from 1970 until 2012 [7] under lodging controlled and uncontrolled conditions respectively
Yield is a complex quantitative trait often affected by genotype, environment and genotype by environment interaction (GEI)
Summary
Tef is the major Ethiopian cereal grown on 3.02 million hectares annually [4], and serving as staple food grain for over 73 million people in the country. It constitutes 30% of the total area allocated to cereals and contributes more than 20% of the total cereals production [4]. Tef varieties developed through hybridization showed a yield advantage of 9.5% over those developed through direct selection from farmers' variety. Yield is a complex quantitative trait often affected by genotype, environment and genotype by environment interaction (GEI). GEI complicates selection of any superior genotype across environments because it reduces the association between phenotypic and genotypic values [6]
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