Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) is industrial and a staple food crop of Ethiopians. Produced in most parts of Ethiopia and has existed in Ethiopia for thousand years. Annually, it occupies 500 thousand hectares in the country. However, the national average yield of durum wheat is low 2.2 t ha-1. The use of unimproved local cultivars and biotic and a biotic stresses are partially attributed to the low yield of the crop. Thus, the experiment was designed to develop high yielding, disease resistant and desirable quality improved varieties of durum wheat suitable for diverse agro-ecologies, farming systems and purposes. Eighteen durum wheat genotypes including four standard checks were laid out in randomized complete block design using four replications for two years (2013 and 2014) at eight locations. The combined data analysis across locations and over the years indicated that candidate variety "Utuba" (IDON-MD-2009_off/53/2009) performed better than the four standard checks and other test genotypes. Consequently, Utuba was identified and released for large scale production.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.