Amsalu Ayana

Sugarcane Landraces of Ethiopia: Germplasm Collection and Analysis of Regional Diversity and Distribution

Sugarcane has been cultivated by smallholder farmers since century in Ethiopia and preceded the commercial production. However, as far as this study is concerned, no exploration and collection have been conducted to know the landraces and study the regional diversity of the crop. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to collect native sugarcane landraces in Ethiopia and to assess phenotypic diversity and analyze regional distribution among landraces collected from different geographical regions. More than 300 sugarcane genotypes were collected. The landraces were analyzed for 21 quantitative stalk and juice quality characters and 16 qualitative characters. Phenotypic diversity among landraces was high, as expressed by the large range of variation for mean quantitative traits and the high (0.80) Shannon–Weaver diversity index. Our results provided experimental evidence on occurrence of geographical variation and significant within-region variation where it was high in the regions of Amhara, Benshangul-Gumz, and SNNPR. Wide variability of agronomically important characters in sugarcane such as millable stalk count at harvest, single cane weight, and plant height was observed among regions. These characters also demonstrated high correlation with cane and sugar yield and the altitude of the collection sites. Therefore breeders can utilize accessions of regions showing variability for these characters in selection programs and to design breeding strategies to produce varieties with best commercial merits. The present study contributes to updating sugarcane descriptors adopted from USDA-ARS as well as Bioversity passport data for the future collection and evaluation. The paper discussed insinuation of the results with regard to plant breeding, germplasm collection, and conservation as well as the plausible sources for the wide range of variation observed. This is the first study to report landrace sugarcane genetic resources in Ethiopia and information on geographical pattern of variation in Ethiopian local sugarcane germplasm.

Genetic Diversity Analysis of Ethiopian Coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) Genotypes for Seed Yield and Oil Content

Genetic diversity is highly significant for the improvement of many crop species including coriander. Eighty oneEthiopian coriander genotypes were evaluated in 9x9 simple lattice design with two replication for genetic diversity analysis in yield and yield related traits at Adami Tulu Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia during 2011 main cropping season. Data were collected on 21 traits. The studied genetic divergence of the 81 coriander genotypes were grouped in to eight clusters using Mahalanobis D2 statistics. The largest cluster (II) and the smallest cluster (VIII), contains about 51.8% and 2.4% of studied genotypes respectively. Maximum and minimum intra cluster distance were observed in cluster II and VIII (D2=7.48 and 1.31 respectively). Maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster VI and VIII (D2=329.85) and the minimum distance was observed between cluster I and IV (D2=19.02), suggesting the possibility of getting suitable genotypes for hybridization program among the genotypes. In conclusion, despite the diverse favorable agro- ecologies, germplasm availability and released opportunities, research attention given to this crop was very low till recent time. The present investigation indicated that there is wide range of genetic diversity in the tested germplasm for most of the characters studied. Hybridization among accessions from different clusters identified in this study could lead to considerable genetic improvement by following appropriate selection strategies in the segregating generations.

Genetic Diversity among Sugarcane Genotypes Based on Qualitative Traits

The study was conducted during 2012/2013 at Wonji Sugar Estate, Ethiopia, to estimate the extent of morphological diversity among sugarcane germplasm based on 16 qualitative traits. Four hundred sugarcane genotypes grouped in 20 locations were considered. Phenotypic frequency distributions of the characters were analyzed and Shannon-Weaver diversity index () was computed using the phenotypic frequencies. Results indicated that the variation in within locations was larger than the diversity observed between locations. The value of for all sample genotypes ranged from 0.43 to 0.98 with a mean of 0.87. Considerable phenotypic diversity was observed among the germplasm studied. This information can be used for establishing proper identity of the accessions, strategic conservation of these germplasm resources, and future improvement work of the sugarcane crop. This is the first study to report phenotypic diversity of local and exotic sugarcane genotypes in Ethiopia.