Abstract
Teff [ Eragrostis tef (Zucc) Trotter] is one of the most important crops in Ethiopia. It ranks the first among cereals in the country in area coverage and second in the production volume. Despite its importance, the production and productivity of this particular crop are highly constrained by several biotic and abiotic factors. Some of the factors contributing to the low yield of teff are low soil fertility and suboptimal use of mineral fertilizers in addition to weeds, old method of seed sowing, erratic rainfall distribution in lower altitudes, method of row planting, lack of high yielding cultivars, lodging, water-logging and late planting of the crop which exposes it to moisture stress. The productivity of teff is very low compared to other major cereal crops. On the other hand, under conditions where most growth requirements are available and inorganic matter rich soils, the application of fertilizers without knowing its fertility status causes yield and fertilizer losses. Likewise, producers do not give attention to teff row spacing, even if it has an advantage of shorter maturity days, highest plant height, highest panicle length, and the number of tillers and less lodging index percentages. Since, grain yield increased with the increase of plant height, panicle length and number of tillers per plant. Therefore, the optimum supply of nitrogen fertilizer and medium row spacing increased the grain yield of crops. Keywords: teff; inter-row spacing; and grain yield DOI : 10.7176/ALST/78-02 Publication date: February 29 th 2020
Highlights
Teff [Eragrostis teff (Zucc.) Trotter] is an indigenous and major staple food crop of Ethiopia
Teff crop is an allotetraploid (2n=4x=40) crop belonging to the grass family Poaceae and it is among the major cereals of Ethiopia
In Ethiopia, teff is cultivated in an area of about 3 million hectares and it contributes about 24.02 % of the total grain crop areas (CSA, 2015)
Summary
Teff [Eragrostis teff (Zucc.) Trotter] is an indigenous and major staple food crop of Ethiopia. Application of nitrogen and row spacing significantly influenced most of the plant phenology, growth parameters, yield and yield components of teff (Tamirat, 2019).
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