Main conclusion Tef is a resilient crop from the Horn of Africa with significant importance in food and nutrition security, and currently gaining global popularity as health and performance food.

Indigenous crops also known as orphan crops are key contributors to food security, which is becoming increasingly vulnerable with the current trend of population growth and climate change. They have the major advantage that they fit well into the general socio-economic and ecological context of developing world agriculture. However, most indigenous crops did not benefit from the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased the yield of major crops such as wheat and rice. Here, we describe the Tef Improvement Project, which employs both conventional-and molecular-breeding techniques to improve tef-an orphan crop important to the food security in the Horn of Africa, a region of the world with recurring devastating famines. We have established an efficient pipeline to bring improved tef lines from the laboratory to the farmers of Ethiopia. Of critical importance to the long-term success of this project is -018-2115-5 the cooperation among participants in Ethiopia and Switzerland, including donors, policy makers, research institutions, and farmers. Together, European and African scientists have developed a pipeline using breeding and genomic tools to improve the orphan crop tef and bring new cultivars to the farmers in Ethiopia. We highlight a new variety, Tesfa, developed in this pipeline and possessing a novel and desirable combination of traits. Tesfa's recent approval for release illustrates the success of the project and marks a milestone as it is the first variety (of many in the pipeline) to be released.

Tef is a foremost staple cereal crop with considerable role in the domestic GDP of Ethiopia. In diverse parts of Ethiopia, declining levels and high variability of rainfall is among the main causes for low crop productivity. Therefore, the study was designed to assess, pinpoint and recommend promising tef breeding lines suitable for irrigation farming conditions in the semi-arid, temperate and cool sub-humid agro-ecologies of Ethiopia. The experimental plant materials comprised fortynine tef genotypes including forty seven recombinant inbred lines (RILs) and two standard checks varieties Quncho and Boset. The forty-seven RILs were out-sourced from three simple crosses of four parental lines. The field experiment was conducted using 7×7 simple lattice designs at three locations (Mehoni, Koga and Werer) during 2016 and 2017. Data were taken on plot and individual plant basis on nine pheno-agro-morphological characters including days to heading and to maturity, grain filling period, plant height, culm length, panicle length, above-ground shoot biomass, grain yield and harvest index. The three locations displayed highly significant (P<0.001) differences for a number of traits. However, panicle length did not show marked difference between locations. The cropping seasons has also showed highly significant (P<0.001) variation aside from plant height. Averaged over locations and seasons, differences among the genotypes were significant for all traits except days to maturity. The pooled result at the two locations (Mehoni and Koga) showed Kaye Murri X 3774-13 RIL 55 has the maximum yield of 3.1 t ha -1 . Thus, it is suggested to use the selected genotype for the sites and similar agro-ecologies. The use of irrigation system showed merit of achieving maximum yield of 4.7 t ha -1 at Mehoni during 2016 (Kaye Murri X 3774-13 RIL 66), but this is not consistent over locations and years. Nowadays, straw also has comparable values to grain yield, hence, the highest aboveground shoot biomass yield and lowest harvest index were indicated by Kaye Murri X 3774-13 RIL 110. Consequently, it would be advisable to use both (Kaye Murri X 3774-13 RIL 66 and Kaye Murri X 3774-13 RIL 110) to further test in the breeding program.

No abstract

The aims of the experiment are to determine and understand the effect of genotype, environment, and their interaction on grain yield of tef, and to identify and release stable and high yielding tef genotype for high potential areas of country. Twelve tef genotypes including two checks were laid out in randomized complete block design using four replications for two years (2016 and 2017) at twelve representative locations of high potential areas of the country. The trial was conducted on the plot size of 2m*2m with 10 rows per plot throughout all trial sites and 1.5m between replication, 1m between plot, and 20cm between rows. Agronomic and yield data were collected and subjected to statistical analysis in order to identify the best genotypes of the evaluated genotypes. Data from individual environments and combined over twelve locations were analyzed by using R 3.5 software version. The combined data analysis over locations and years indicated that the candidate variety Kaye Murri X 3774-1 (RIL18) performed better than the two checks and the other test genotypes. It gave 7.5% and 10.65% grain yield advantages over the standard check (Quncho) and local check, respectively. The significant genotypes x environments interaction effects indicated the inconsistent performance of genotypes across the tested environments. The candidate variety DZ-Cr-458 (RIL18) is the shortest vector from the AEC axis that identified as the most stable genotype. The National Variety Release Committee in Ethiopia investigated the two-year performance of Kaye Murri X 3774-1 (RIL18) and visited several locations where the new candidate variety was grown for evaluation under variety verification trial. Based on the critiques, the National Variety Release Committee the candidate variety was approved for release Kaye Murri X 3774-1 (RIL18), for high potential areas of the country with the vernacular name of "Ebba" as a standing witnessed for the earliest known tef scientist, Dr. Tadesse Ebba.