Response of the Vegetative Growth of tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.)Trotter] Accessions and Varieties to Soil Salinity

摘要

This study aimed to screen fifteen low land tef genotypes (10 accessions and 5 varieties) during vegetative growth at 0 dS/m (control), 2, 4, 8 and 16 dS/m. Data analysis was carried out using SAS package (SAS version 8.2, 2001) and SPSS version 12. The two ways ANOVA showed significant variation for both accessions/varieties (p<0.01) and treatment (p<0.001) with respect to Plant Height During Heading (PHDH), Plant Height at Harvest (PHAH), Culm Length Per plant (CLE), Culm Diameter per plant (CDI) and Root Length per plant (RLE). On the other hand, the ANOVAforaccession/variety*treatment interaction was significant for CLE and RLE (p<0.001) and PHDH (p<0.01). This implies that all the accessions and varieties respond to salinity stress differently with respect to these three vegetative growth characters. However, the ANOVA for the accession/variety*treatment interaction for the rest characters was insignificant reflecting that the entire varieties and accessions react to salinity stress similarly. Accessions 205217, 55017, 231217 and variety DZ-Cr-358 were salt sensitive genotypes whereas accessions 237186, 212928 and variety DZ-Cr-37 were salt tolerant genotypes of all. Plant Height During Heading (PHDH) and Culm Diameter per plant (CDI) were the most and the least salt affected vegetative growth characters respectively. Generally, the study revealed the presence of broad intraspecific genetic variation in tef accessions and varieties for salt tolerance but more in the former.