Productivity of tef [Eragrostis tef] under conservation tillage practices in central Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract Field experiments were carried out to evaluate the productivity of tef under different tillage practices during 2016–2017 at Alem Tena and Minjar in Central Ethiopia. The experiment was carried out using split-plot design with three replications. The treatments consisted of two tef varieties (Boset and Kora) assigned in the main plot and four tillage practices (conventional tillage, reduced tillage with residue retained, reduced tillage without residue retained and zero tillage) assigned as sub-plots. The results showed that the main effect of tillage practices and variety was significant on grain yield and biomass at Alem Tena. However, at Minjar, only main effect of variety had a significant effect on grain yield. At both locations, the Variety × Tillage interactions were absent; the tef variety, Kora, performed better in yield and than Boset. At Alem Tena, the highest yield (2673 and 2343 kg/ha) and biomass (16,713 and 13,518 kg/ha) were obtained in farmer practice and reduced tillage with residue retained, respectively. Similarly, at Minjar, the highest biomass (9439 kg/ha) was obtained in farmer practice, but was not significantly different from reduced tillage with residue retained and zero tillage. The economic analysis revealed that reduced tillage with residue retained gave highest net benefit and marginal rate of return (MRR) as compared to other practices at both locations. Zero tillage gave lowest net benefit and MRR at both locations. Therefore, reduced tillage with residue retained can be recommended as an alterantive tillage practice for resource poor farmers in central Ethiopia without significantly affecting yield.