Abstract

Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] is a tetraploid almanac plant which belongs to the grass family, Poaceae and plays a vital role in the Ethiopian national food. In this study, thirty-four F2 derived F7 recombinant tef inbred lines, two standard (Kora and Quncho) and one local checks were field evaluated for genetic variability in grain yield and yield related characters at Axum Agricultural Research Center in 2014 cropping season. Triplicated randomized complete block design was used. Data were collected on fourteen yield and yield related traits and the analysis of variance reveled that genotypes varied significantly for all traits studied except thousand kernel weight. Highest genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was computed for biomass yield followed by panicle yield, plant height and grain yield, in contrast, lowest GCV was noted for number of fertile tillers per plant, days to heading, days to maturity and lodging index, whereas the highest phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was recorded for panicle yield, plant height, biomass production rate per day and biomass yield. The highest broad sense heritability values were recorded for plant height, biomass production rate per day, biomass yield, days to 50% heading and grain yield. The highest genetic advance as percent of mean was recorded for biomass production rate per day, biomass yield, grain yield and grain yield production rate per day, while the lowest genetic advance as a percent of mean was computed for number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length, days to heading and panicle weight. The overall study indicated that there were variations in magnitude of variability in traits for the genotypes studied which showed smooth selection for further improvement in tef.

Key words: Genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), genetic advance, heritability, phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV), seed yield, variability.

Abbreviation

DH, Days to heading; DM, days to maturity; PH, plant height (cm); PL, panicle length (cm); NT, number of productive tillers per plant; PW, panicle weight per plant per plant (g); YPP, yield panicle^-1(g); TKW, thousand kernel weight (g); BY, biomass yield (kg ha^-1); GY, grain yield (kg ha^-1); HI, harvest index (%); LI, lodging index (%); BPR, biomass production rate (kg ha^-1 day^-1); GYPG, grain yield production rate per day (kg ha^-1 day^-1); σ²_g, genotypic variance; σ²_p, phenotypic variance; PCV, phenotypic coeficient of varience (%); GCV, genotypic coeficent of varience (%); H², broad sense heritability (%); GA, genetic advance, GAM, genetic advance as percent of mean (%); RILs, recombinant inbred lines.