Effects of Salinity on Yield and Yield Components of tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] Accessions and Varieties

摘要

This study aimed to screen fifteen low land tef genotypes (10 accessions and 5 varieties) with respect to yield and yield components at 0dS/m (control), 2, 4, 8 and 16 dS/m salinity levels and data analysis was carried out using SAS package (SAS version 8.2, 2001). The two ways ANOVA showed significant variation with respect to Main Panicle Length (MPL), Peduncle Length (PDL), number of spikelets per main panicle (SP/MP), number of Primary Panicle Branch per Main Panicle (PPB/MP), Main Panicle Dry Weight (MPDW) and Grain Yield per Main Panicle (GY/MP) at p<0.001 for both accessions/varieties and treatment. On the other hand, accession/variety*treatment interaction effect was significant for MPDW (p<0.001) and SP/MP (p<0.01). This implies that all the accessions and varieties respond to salinity stress differently with respect to these two characters. However, the accession/variety*treatment interaction for the rest characters was insignificant reflecting that the entire varieties and accessions react to salinity stress similarly. Accession 236514, varieties DZ-Cr-358 and DZ-01-1681 were salt sensitive genotypes whereas accession 237186 and variety DZ-cr-37 were salt tolerant genotypes of all. Generally, the study revealed the presence of broad intraspecific genetic variation in tef accessions and varieties for salt tolerance but more in the former. Irrespective of salinity being a growing problem in Ethiopia in general and the Awash valley in particular, only little has been done on crops salt tolerance. Therefore, to alleviate the already existing and the inevitable incoming salinity problem, there should be similar and profound studies on tef and other crops.