In Ethiopia, tef occupies the fifth position in terms of importance among cereal crops, preceded by wheat, sorghum, barley, and maize. Over 89 million Ethiopians rely on tef, the country’s second most widely grown crop after maize, and a key staple food. This study aimed to investigate the genetic variability and the relationships among the major traits within 304 tef genotypes during the 2019–2020 main cropping season in Debre Zeit, located in central Ethiopia. Using an augmented block design, consisting of eleven blocks, 10 traits were evaluated. The genetic variability and interrelationships among key traits were examined using ANOVA according to an augmented RCBD, correlations, cluster, and principal component analysis. An ANOVA revealed highly significant differences ( p < 0.01) between all the traits, except for grain yield ( p < 0.05). Significant genetic variation was observed across all the traits. The number of days to 50% flowering ranged from 27—71 days, whereas the number of days to 75% physiological maturity ranged from 54—94 days. The plant height ranged from 58.1—134.5 cm, and the panicle length ranged from 20.3—49.25 cm. Several accessions exhibited superior grain yield performance, notably accessions 244, 794, 18,960, 24,312, and 9,462, producing grain yields of 1.95, 1.94, 1.91, and 1.89 t ha⁻ 1 , respectively. High phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were observed for grain yield, culm diameter, and the number of spikelets per panicle, with the highest broad-sense heritability estimates and genetic advance values over the mean recorded for most of the studied traits. The panicle length and spikelet count were positively correlated with the grain yield, while the number of days to 50% flowering was a negatively correlated. Cluster analysis revealed four groups of traits, with over 81.32% of the variability explained by the first four principal components. The identification of genotypes with high genetic variability, extensive trait value variation, and significant positive trait correlations will aid in improving genotypes for enhanced yield through selection and hybridization. Further molecular-level research and advanced statistical analyses are necessary to effectively conserve tef genetic resources, deepen understanding of genetic relationships, and pinpoint critical variability sources for yield improvement.
Azene et al. (Sat,) studied this question.