Screening Some Tef [Eragrostis Tef (Zucc.)Trotter] Accessions/Varieties for Salt Tolerance during Germination and Seedling Stage

Abstract

Salinity is a continuing problem in the arid and semi-arid tracts of the world. It could be alleviated using irrigation management and/or crop management. However, the former approach is outdated and very expensive. Nevertheless, the latter is economical as well as efficient, and it enables to produce salt tolerant crop lines. But prior to that there is a need to confirm the presence of genetic based variation for salt tolerance among different species or varieties of a particular crop that can thrive under unreliable agro-ecological situations; tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc) Trotter] is one of such crops. Thus fifteen lowland tef genotypes (10 accessions and 5 varieties) were tested during germination and seedling stage at 2dS/m, 4dS/m, 8dS/m, 12dS/m and 16dS/m salinity levels. Distilled water (0dS/m) was used as a control. Data analysis was carried out using SAS package. Germination percentage (GP), germination rate (GR), seedling shoot length (SSL) and seedling root length (SRL) were measured. The analyzed data showed significant variation among most parameters recorded for accessions and varieties (p < 0.01) and for treatments (p < 0.001). Germination rate and seedling root length were more salt affected than final germination percentage and seedling shoot length respectively. The main cause for reduced and delayed germination percentage was osmotic effect. The ion effect was also learned to be minimal. Most accessions and varieties failed to germinate at 12dS/m and 16dS/m salinity levels. Thus, these salt concentrations were not important in screening tef genotypes for salt tolerance. Varieties such as DZ-01-1281, DZ-Cr-358 and accession 236512 were found to be salt sensitive. However, variety DZ-Cr-37 and accessions 237186, 237131 and 212928 were found to be salt tolerant. The rest accessions and varieties were intermediate in their salt tolerance. The study affirmed the presence of broad intraspecific variation among tef accessions and varieties for salt tolerance but more in the former.

Sensitivity of Seed Germination to Salt Stress in Teff [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter]

“…Moreover, our results were in agreement with the findings of Abusuwar and Abbaker (2009), Asfaw and Itanna (2009) and Mamo et al (1996) who found that high levels of salinity can significantly inhibit seed germination in teff. In particular, increasing of salinity from 4 to 8 dS m -1 reduced the seed germination percentage and delayed germination time of various teff genotypes and no germination occurred in the highest salinity stress of 16 dS m -1 .…”

“…There is evidence that teff shows moderate tolerance to salinity stress (Kebebew and McNeilly, 1995). However, relative data are rather inadequate (Mamo et al, 1996;Abusuwar and Abbaker, 2009;Asfaw and Itanna, 2009).…”

A Review on Agricultural Problems and Their Management in Ethiopia

“…Over 11 million ha of land in Ethiopia are known to be salt affected (Ruffeis et al, 2008;Taddese, 2001). These salt-affected soils are prevalent in Rift Valley, the arid and semi-arid lowlands and other areas that are characterized by higher evapotranspiration rates (Asfaw and Itanna, 2009;Dubale, 2002;Geressu and Gezaghegne, 2008). To this effect, salinization has been a major constraint to the irrigated agriculture of the country.…”

“…For example, soil salinity has caused abandonment of banana plantation in Amibara, cotton plantation in Melka Sedi and nearly 30 ha of farmland in Metahara sugar plantation due to a progressive rise of groundwater as a result of over irrigation (Abebe et al, 2015;Abegaz, 1996;Ayenew, 2007). Asfaw and Itanna (2009) also indicates that of the entire Abaya State Farm, 30% has already been salt affected.…”

Character association in mulberry under different magnitude of salinity stress

“…Since, India, China, and other sericulturally important countries have vast areas affected by salinity especially in the arid and semiarid regions, evolution of salt tolerant mulberry varieties are seen to be an essential part of the ongoing research. Although studies in other crops like barley (Kumar and Gupta, 1984), tef (Asfwa and Itanna, 2009) and wheat (El-Hendawy et al, 2009;Sinclair and Hoffmann, 2003) have shown that the magnitude of association among traits associated with plant growth and developments vary significantly under different growing conditions. Unfortunately, there is a fundamental gap in our understanding on the relationship between tolerance at low and high salinity levels in mulberry.…”