Technical Report
 

Selection and Improvement of Teff Accessions for Improved Forage Growth, Yield, and Nutritional Quality, 2009

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  • As we described previously and elsewhere in this annual report, teff (Eragrostis tef [Zucc.], Poaceae) is a warm season (C4) annual tropical grass that can produce good quality forage during a short summer time frame, and thus has the potential to be a viable crop choice when forage producers: a) desire a quick-growing, high quality mid-summer annual forage; b) foresee less-than full season irrigation water supply; c) need an emergency crop due to crop failure; or d) need a one-year forage rotation crop between alfalfa stands. We began growing teff in a quasi-commercial field setting in 2003, and began more rigorous testing of teff’s agronomic requirements in 2005 after unprecedented response from a popular press article about our early efforts indicated widespread national interest in this ‘new’ alternative forage crop (Zenk, 2005; Roseberg et al., 2006). Despite the promising results seen thus far, there are very few commercially available brands of teff seed. Much of the teff available in commerce is common landraces, not released varieties, and thus have varying degrees of uniformity and performance. Despite the genetically narrow and uneven commercial seed supply, the USDA germplasm system contains many accessions collected from teff’s native habitat in east Africa. These accessions include a wide range of plant morphological types, seed color, and other characteristics. Until recently, most interest in teff has focused on its qualities relative to the seed used in human food (mainly injera, a staple of Ethiopian cuisine), but not its forage qualities. Because of this lack of germplasm evaluation and varietal development, we decided to begin a multi-year evaluation of teff accessions to evaluate the range of yield, quality, and morphological factors available, with the goal of selecting improved cultivars for possible release as commercial seed brands. 2009 was the fourth year of this effort.
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