Tef Breeding Manual
Creators: name: Chanyalew, Solomon
name: Kebede, Worku
name: Tsion Fikre
name: Yazachew Genet
name: Jifar, Habte
name: Mengistu Demissie
name: Kidist Tolosa
name: Mahlet Tadesse
name: Zerihun Tadele
name: Kebebew Assefa
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Tef Eragrostis tef Breeding Manual

description: Tef [Eragrostis Tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is an indigenous and yet the principal cereal in Ethiopia in terms of acreage, production and cash crop value to the smallholder Ethiopian farmers. The crop is highly valued by both farmers and consumers because of its unique features that render it with a multitude of relative merits over the other cereals grown in the country with respect to both farming and utilization aspects. Although the crop has in recent years been gaining global popularity as “health and performance food”, the cultivation of Tef as a cereal grain crop for food in the world has still remained almost exclusively restricted mainly in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and in small quantities in South Africa, and very recently in the United States of America, the Netherlands, Spain and Israel. Consequently, the genetic improvement of the crop practically rests upon domestic efforts with little or no technical and financial support from international and other foreign research establishments and donors. Scientific Tef improvement research in Ethiopia started in the late 1950s, and history puts it that Tef breeding was first started in 1960 through collection of farmers’ varieties and selections (mass and pure-line) of desirable types from the germplasm in 1960 at the then Central Experiment Station now Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, of the then Imperial College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (now Haramaya University). Over the years, several breeding approaches were used including induced mutation techniques, recombination through intra and inter-specific hybridization, participatory breeding and variety selection, in vitro cultures and other recent high throughput breeding and genomic techniques such as TILLING, molecular marker systems, and genome or gene editing via CRISPR/Cas9. In the Tef breeding program, various seemingly standard approaches and methods have been used by the researchers. Nevertheless, the methods are passed over from generations to generations of researchers simply by experience sharing and oral instructions along with learning of new researchers on the practical undertaking from their predecessors and/or even senior technical assistants. This “Tef Breeding Manual” is, therefore, primarily meant for filling this gap and providing a written document that can serve as a guideline for researchers engaged in Tef breeding. In its preparation, due attempts have been made to learn from and elucidate, as necessary, approaches adopted in the preparation of other similar crop breeding manuals such as that of wheat, sorghum and maize in Ethiopia. Last but not least, it should be emphasized that this manual is not static, but rather dynamic being subject to periodic amendments, additions and changes as the needs arise especially due to new developments in the art and science of crop breeding.