Temesgen Begna
Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Plant Breeding, Department Member
- I am Temesgen Begna. I am a researcher at Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Researchedit
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Global food security has become a major issue as the human population grows and the environment changes, with the current rate of improvement of several important crops inadequate to meet future demand. Crop plants have extended... more
Global food security has become a major issue as the human population grows and the environment changes, with the current rate of improvement of several important crops inadequate to meet future demand. Crop plants have extended generation times, which contributes to the slow rate of progress. However, speed breeding has revolutionized the entire world by reducing generation time and speeding up breeding and research programs to improve crop varieties. In the absence of an integrated pre-breeding program, breeding new and high-performing cultivars with market-preferred traits can take more than ten years. After the first cross with parental genotypes, a large amount of time, space, and resources are committed to the selection and genetic advancement stages during the early stages of breeding. Speed breeding has the ability to shorten the time it takes to develop, market, and commercialize cultivars. Crop improvement in the face of a fast-changing environment and an ever-increasing human population is a major concern for scientists around the world. Current crop enhancement projects are progressing at a rate that is insufficient to meet food demand. Crop redesign is urgently needed for climate resilience, as well as long-term yield and nutrition. Crop progress is slowed significantly by the long generation time required by crop plants during the breeding process. Speed breeding is now being used on a large scale to shorten generation time and support multiple crop generations per year as a solution in this approach. Researchers are now using an integrated approach to improve breeding efficiency, combining speed breeding with current plant breeding and genetic engineering methods. Speed breeding is a promising approach for achieving nutritional security and sustainable agriculture by shortening breeding cycles for food and industrial crop enhancement. Speed breeding is a methodology that allows plant breeders to improve crop production by adjusting temperature, light duration, and intensity to boost plant development. It uses an artificial source of light, which is kept on continuously, to activate the photosynthetic process, which leads to growth and reproduction much earlier than normal. This will assist in meeting the demands of the future’s rising population. This can be accomplished using a variety of technologies, including genotyping, marker-assisted selection, high throughput phenotyping; gene editing, genomic selection, and re-domestication, all of which can be combined with speed breeding to allow plant breeders to keep up with a changing climate and growing human population.
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Narrow genetic base and lack of potential drought resistant sorghum genotypes are the major limiting factors for sorghum yield improvement under moisture stress areas. Therefore, the experiment was conducted to quantify the genetic... more
Narrow genetic base and lack of potential drought resistant sorghum genotypes are the major limiting factors for sorghum yield improvement under moisture stress areas. Therefore, the experiment was conducted to quantify the genetic variation available among sorghum genotypes for drought tolerance. A total of 42 sorghum genotypes were evaluated using alpha lattice experimental design with two replications at Mieso and Kobo during the cropping season of 2019. The combined analyses of variance revealed the presence of substantial genetic variation among sorghum genotypes for all the studied traits. Among the traits with high genotypic coefficient of variation and heritability estimate, plant height, panicle exersion and panicle yield were linked with higher values of genetic advance as percentage of mean, reflecting the variability of these traits is controlled by additive gene action. The high heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean were obtained for plant height (95.63 and 45.39%), 1000 seed weight (77.98 and 23.86%), panicle exertion (74.87 and 51.88%), and panicle yield (65.43 and 37.32%) in the same order. The maximum grain yield was obtained from a hybrid 4x14 (6.32 tha− 1) followed by hybrid 8x15(5.92 tha− 1), 1x15 (5.88 tha− 1), 13x14 (5.78 tha− 1) and 6x15 (5.57 tha− 1) with the average value of 5.00 tha− 1 which had higher mean value than the mean of the parents and the check (ESH-4). In general, this study showed the existence of genetic variability in sorghum genotypes for different traits grown under moisture stress condition, providing opportunity to select several promising genotypes with key traits to drought tolerance.
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Information on combining ability and heterosis of parents and crossings is crucial in breeding efforts. Genetic variety is crucial to the effectiveness of yield improvement efforts because it helps to broaden gene pools in any given crop... more
Information on combining ability and heterosis of parents and crossings is crucial in breeding efforts. Genetic variety is crucial to the effectiveness of yield improvement efforts because it helps to broaden gene pools in any given crop population. The genotype's ability to pass the intended character to the offspring is referred to as combining ability. As a result, information on combining ability is required to determine the crossing pairs in the production of hybrid varieties. Heterosis is the expression of an F1 hybrid's dominance over its parents in a given feature, as measured not by the trait's absolute value, but by its practical use. To put it another way, heterosis is defined as an increase in the character value of F1 hybrids when compared to the average value of both parents. A plant breeder's ultimate goal is to achieve desirable heterosis (hybrid vigor). In a variety of crop species, heterosis has been widely employed to boost output and extend the ad...
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Genetic variation is a source of phenotypic diversity and is a major driver of evolutionary diversification. Heritable variation was observed and used thousands of years ago in the domestication of plants and animals. The mechanisms that... more
Genetic variation is a source of phenotypic diversity and is a major driver of evolutionary diversification. Heritable variation was observed and used thousands of years ago in the domestication of plants and animals. The mechanisms that govern the inheritance of traits were later described by Mendel. Plant breeding requires genetic variation of useful traits for crop improvement. The induction of mutations has been used to enhance the yield, better nutritional quality and wider adaptability of world's most important crops such as wheat, rice, pulses, millets and oilseeds. The total area covered by commercially released mutant cultivars clearly indicates that they have played a significant role in solving food and nutritional security problems in many countries. Of all the mutant varieties developed, majority of mutants were produced through direct mutagenesis of the plant propagules and also there are several reports of mutants derived by irradiating rooted stem cuttings, which paves the way for in vitro mutagenesis. The incorporation of desired traits from non-adapted landraces or crop wild resources can speed up crop improvement. Among the different strategies to enhance crop improvement programs, induced mutagenesis has contributed immensely by creating mutant varieties with improved and desirable genetic changes in agronomic ally important traits of the crop plants. Such genetic changes can occur spontaneously naturally at a very low rate or experimentally induced by physical and chemical mutagens. Conventional mutation techniques have often been used to improve yield, quality, and disease and pest resistance in crops or to increase the attractiveness of flowers and ornamental plants. In general, mutation is the main source of genetic variation, which is the raw material for evolution by natural selection. Recognize that mutations are the basis of microevolution and that adaptations enhance the survival and reproduction of individuals in a population. Mutation breeding has greater impact in sustainable crop production by developing new mutant varieties. With the advances in genomics research and availability of genome sequences, induced mutants continue to be a genetic resource for elucidating genetic mechanisms and metabolic pathways. Agricultural sustainability and food security are major challenges facing continued population growth. Integration of existing and new technologies for the induction and exploitation of genetic diversity towards developing healthier, nutritious and productive crops is the need of the hour. Mutagenesis is a proven technology for the development of improved or novel varieties with desirable traits. Several mutant genes have been successfully explored, either directly or indirectly, to complement crop productivity.
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Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important and widely grown vegetable crops both during rainy and dry seasons for its fruit by smallholder farmers, commercial state and private farms in Ethiopia. Field study was... more
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important and widely grown vegetable crops both during rainy and dry seasons for its fruit by smallholder farmers, commercial state and private farms in Ethiopia. Field study was conducted during 2018 to 2020 cropping season at highland areas of West Hararghe aimed at evaluating performance of recently released tomato varieties. Treatments used were composed of three released tomato varieties (Gelilema, Chali & ARP-Tomato-d2) arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Traits such as plant height, number of primary branches, days to 50% flowering, days to 50% maturity, number of clusters per plant, number of fruits per cluster, fruit weight, unmarketable fruit yield, marketable fruit yield and total fruit yield were analyzed using R software (R 3.4.1). According to analysis of variance, tomato varieties were found to cause significant (P ≤ 0.001) difference for plant height (cm), number of primary branches per plant, days to 50% flowering (days), days to 50% maturity (days), number of clusters per plant, number of fruit per cluster, fruit weight (gmfruit-1), marketable fruit yield (tha-1) and total fruit yield (tha-1) while unmarketable fruit yield (tha-1) nonsignificantly affected by tomato varieties. Hence, highest plant height (60cm), the highest days to 50% flowering (53 days), highest days to 50% maturity (102days), the highest number of primary branches (9 numberplant-1), the highest number of cluster (14 number plant-1), highest number of fruits (4.33 number cluste-1), highest marketable fruit yield (30.33tha-1) and highest total fruit yield (33.33tha-1) recorded with variety Gelilema. Among tomato varieties evaluated, variety Gelilema showed best performances in plant height, primary branches, fruit yield and fruit yield components of tomato. Therefore, as variety Gelilema was superior in these parameters, recommended for the study areas to maximize productivity and production of tomato.
Research Interests:
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The success of a plant breeding program greatly depends on the right choice of parents for hybridization and the gene action of different economic traits. Genetic variation is a key component in broadening gene pools in any given crop... more
The success of a plant breeding program greatly depends on the right choice of parents for hybridization and the gene action of different economic traits. Genetic variation is a key component in broadening gene pools in any given crop population and is critical to the success of yield improvement program. However, limited genetic variation and lack of potential parents and hybrids are the most limiting factors for improvement of sorghum in the moisture stress areas. Therefore, the study was conducted to estimate the combining abilities and determine gene action governing the quantitative traits for yield and its components using line x tester mating design. The experimental materials consisted of fifteen parents along with their twenty six hybrids and one standard check. The experiment was laid out using alpha lattice design with two replications at Mieso and Kobo during the main cropping season of 2019. For all of the traits studied, the combined analysis of variance indicated high...
The ultimate purpose of a crop improvement program is to develop high yielding cultivars with desirable traits for farmers. However farmers in marginal areas still grow low-yielding, disease- and pest-prone sorghum land-races. In order to... more
The ultimate purpose of a crop improvement program is to develop high yielding cultivars with desirable traits for farmers. However farmers in marginal areas still grow low-yielding, disease- and pest-prone sorghum land-races. In order to address the issues of farmers' selection criteria, an experiment was conducted at Hirna and Chiro with the objectives of evaluating adaptability and identifying farmers' preferred traits. During the 2019 main cropping season, a total of six sorghum varieties were evaluated using a randomized complete block design. Direct-matrix and pair-wise ranking algorithms were used to evaluate farmers at the flowering and maturity developmental stages. Grain yield, biomass, seed color, disease resistance, and seed size characteristics were given priority by farmers when evaluating and selecting their preferred varieties. At a 1% probability level, the combined analysis of variance results revealed the existence of highly significant genetic variation a...
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The present study was conducted to interpret Genotype main effect and GEI obtained by AMMI analysis and group the genotype having similar response pattern over all environments. Twenty-five bread wheat genotypes were evaluated by Alpha... more
The present study was conducted to interpret Genotype main effect and GEI obtained by AMMI analysis and group the genotype having similar response pattern over all environments. Twenty-five bread wheat genotypes were evaluated by Alpha lattice using three replications at six locations in Oromia, Ethiopia. The main effect differences among genotypes, environments, and the interaction effects were highly significant (P<0.01) of the total variance of grain yield. Results of AMMI analysis of mean grain yield for the six locations showed significant differences (P<0.01) among the genotypes, the environments and GEI. The environment had the greatest effect with the environmental sum of squares (84.25%) than the genotypes (5.34%) and GEI (10.40%) effect. The AMMI analysis for the IPCA1 captured 62.25% and the IPCA2 explained 25.74%. The two IPC cumulatively captured 88% of the sum of square the GEI of bread wheat genotypes, when the IPCA1 was plotted against IPCA2. The genotype BW174...
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important and widely grown vegetable crops both during rainy and dry seasons for its fruit by smallholder farmers, commercial state and private farms in Ethiopia. Field study was... more
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important and widely grown vegetable crops both during rainy and dry seasons for its fruit by smallholder farmers, commercial state and private farms in Ethiopia. Field study was conducted during 2018 to 2020 cropping season at highland areas of West Hararghe aimed at evaluating performance of recently released tomato varieties. Treatments used were composed of three released tomato varieties (Gelilema, Chali & ARP-Tomato-d2) arranged in a randomized complete block design (RCBD). Traits such as plant height, number of primary branches, days to 50% flowering, days to 50% maturity, number of clusters per plant, number of fruits per cluster, fruit weight, unmarketable fruit yield, marketable fruit yield and total fruit yield were analyzed using R software (R 3.4.1). According to analysis of variance, tomato varieties were found to cause significant (P ≤ 0.001) difference for plant height (cm), number of primary branches per plant, days to 50% flowering (days), days to 50% maturity (days), number of clusters per plant, number of fruit per cluster, fruit weight (gmfruit-1), marketable fruit yield (tha-1) and total fruit yield (tha-1) while unmarketable fruit yield (tha-1) nonsignificantly affected by tomato varieties. Hence, highest plant height (60cm), the highest days to 50% flowering (53 days), highest days to 50% maturity (102days), the highest number of primary branches (9 numberplant-1), the highest number of cluster (14 number plant-1), highest number of fruits (4.33 number cluste-1), highest marketable fruit yield (30.33tha-1) and highest total fruit yield (33.33tha-1) recorded with variety Gelilema. Among tomato varieties evaluated, variety Gelilema showed best performances in plant height, primary branches, fruit yield and fruit yield components of tomato. Therefore, as variety Gelilema was superior in these parameters, recommended for the study areas to maximize productivity and production of tomato.
Sorghum is a critical crop especially in semiarid areas where there is inadequate moisture.it is the fifth important crop among the cereals. Sorghum is a C4 plant which is originated and diversified in Ethiopia. It is used for feed, fuel,... more
Sorghum is a critical crop especially in semiarid areas where there is inadequate moisture.it is the fifth important crop among the cereals. Sorghum is a C4 plant which is originated and diversified in Ethiopia. It is used for feed, fuel, and consumed by human beings in the form of enjera, boiled porridge or gruel, malted beverages, beer, popped grain, and chips. In Ethiopia, biotic, socioeconomic, and abiotic restrictions limit sorghum production and productivity. Drought, Striga, disease, insect pests and etc are major problems Sorghum breeding program Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, which is part of the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute, is in charge of coordination in Ethiopia. National and regional sorghum improvement programs have released many open-pollinated and hybrid sorghum varieties for Ethiopia’s various agro-ecological zones. Nowadays to feed the world population the production and productivity of sorghum should be increased. As a result, the aim of this...
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Participatory variety selection is the most important breeding program which enhanced the adoption of improved varieties through creating awareness based on smallholder farmers’ selection criteria. Several different improved sorghum... more
Participatory variety selection is the most important breeding program which enhanced the adoption of improved varieties through creating awareness based on smallholder farmers’ selection criteria. Several different improved sorghum varieties are released at different international and national research institutions at different times, however, the technologies were not properly addressed the farmers based on participatory, client oriented and demand driven. The experiment was carried out in West Hararghe Zone; Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia with the objective to identify and recommend the best adapted and performed improved sorghum varieties with farmers’ preference traits through continuous performance evaluation at different stages of the sorghum. A total of six sorghum varieties were evaluated in randomized complete block design in the 2019 main cropping season. Farmers have evaluated the entire experimental units using different statistical tools like direct-matrix and pair-wi...
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Participatory variety selection is the most important breeding program which enhanced adoption of suitable improved varieties in order to address the needs of a broader range of users and to enhance farmer skills in variety selection and... more
Participatory variety selection is the most important breeding program which enhanced adoption of suitable improved varieties in order to address the needs of a broader range of users and to enhance farmer skills in variety selection and seed production efforts. It plays significant role in collaboration between breeders, farmers, marketers, processors, consumers, and policy makers. It also allows farmers to take part in the development of new varieties more suitable to marginal environments and to organic farming agronomic practices. Several different improved sorghum varieties are released at different international and national research institutions in different times, however the technologies were not properly addressed the farmers based on participatory, client oriented and demand driven. Therefore, the experiment was conducted in Eastern part of Ethiopia of Oromia regional state to evaluate the performance of improved sorghum varieties and to identify farmers&#39; preference traits through continuous performance evaluation at different stages of the crop. Five sorghum varieties along with local check collected from study area were evaluated in randomized complete block design in 2019 main cropping season. Farmers&#39; evaluation was made at two different stages of the crop, namely at flowering and maturity using both direct-matrix and pair-wise ranking methods of selection scheme. Farmers&#39; set; grain yield, disease resistance, grain color and seed size as selection criteria to evaluate and identify their preferred varieties. The results of analysis of variance indicated the existence of highly significant differences among varieties for all traits measured except plant height at 5% probability level. The highest mean grain yield was obtained from the variety Dibaba (11325 Kgha-1) and Jiru (10200 Kgha-1) respectively. Grain yield had positive and highly significantly correlated with thousand seed weight (0.95**) and also positively and significantly correlated with days to 50% flowering (0.85*). Likewise, based on the overall farmer&#39;s preference (from both pair-wise and direct matrix ranking evaluations), Dibaba and Jiru were ranked first and second and followed by Adelle, ETS2752 and Chiro respectively. Thus, the varieties Dibaba and Jiru were chosen for their performance in the field and from farmers&#39; evaluation perspective. Moreover, this study indicated participatory varietal selection is a viable method to gain greater insight into farmers&#39; perceptions, preferences, merits and shortcomings of sorghum varieties. Therefore, based on the results of this study, Dibaba and Jiru are recommended for multiplication and distribution to farmers through both formal and informal seed systems. Generally, the integration of plant breeders and farmer&#39;s perception used to increase the adoption rate and design a good breeding program for future improvement.
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Research Interests: Biology and Food Security
In the genomics era, advances in molecular biology have opened new opportunities to accelerate plant breeding processes and in overcoming the crop productivity constraints. Molecular markers have become important tools in the hands of... more
In the genomics era, advances in molecular biology have opened new opportunities to accelerate plant breeding processes and in overcoming the crop productivity constraints. Molecular markers have become important tools in the hands of plant breeders in marker assisted breeding and for enhancing the selection efficiency for various agronomic traits in precision plant breeding. The isolation, cloning and moving of genes from diverse biological sources into plant genomes holds promise to broaden the gene pool of crops and develop new plant varieties for specific traits that determine yield, quality, and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. New genomics tools will be of great value to support conventional breeding for sustainable food production especially under the climate change and meet demand of ever-growing human population. A noteworthy research in conventional breeding for several years has made the world self-sufficient in many respects. However, the ever-increasing popula...