Abstract: Sesame is the earliest oilseed plant to be used by humans, adapted to tropical climates and with low water demand, sesame is a good cultivation option for semi-arid regions as it is rich in proteins and can provide an alternative income source, especially for small and medium farmers. Sesame has moderate salt tolerance, but will not grow under flooded conditions. Selection and growing of salt tolerant food and forage crops could increase productivity and production of crops in marginalized salt affected land. Therefore this research study was conducted with objective to screen and select salt tolerant sesame varieties that suit to moderately saline condition from available genotypes. Hundreds of sesame accessions were evaluated through subjecting them to different salinity levels and 10 of them which showed higher germination percentage were promoted to seedling stage. At seedling stage screening, similarly the accessions were subjected to different salinity levels and evaluated to different agronomic performances and nine of them which performed well were again promoted to field stage screening. Field stage screening were conducted at saline filed condition of Werer farm. Statistical analysis result revealed that there were variation in salinity tolerance among tested accessions in response to grain yield. From the result five sesame accessions such as EW-01, Acc-205-191, Acc-ew-018 (1), Acc-ew-018 (1) and Acc-205-184 gave higher yield than the overall mean of accessions. Therefore these accessions can be promoted for the next stage screenings for registration and further breeding works.

Keywords: sesame. Salinity, tolerance.

Title: Screening of Different Sesame (Sesamum Indicum L.) Accessions for Salt Tolerance at Different Growth Stages

Author: Lemma Mamo, Tshome Bekele, Bethel Nekir, Ashenafi Worku

ISSN 2394-966X

International Journal of Novel Research in Life Sciences                                                    

Novelty Journals

Abstract: Soil acidity is now a serious threat to barley production in most highlands of Ethiopia. Three hundred twenty (320) barley genotypes were evaluated in 2017 main-season, at Holetta Agricultural Research Center using 20x16 Alpha Lattice design under two-soil conditions (limed and unlimed). The objectives of the study were to evaluate the effect of soil acidity on morpho-agronomic traits. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that there were significant differences among the genotypes under both limed and unlimed soil conditions for all traits except for days to emergence under limed soil conditions, indicating the presence of genotypic variation among the studied genotypes. Soil acidity stress caused reductions ranging from 0.41 % in thousand kernel weight to 40.40% in fertile tillers per plant.

Keywords: ANOVA, genotypic variation, soil acidity stress.

Title: Assessment of mean reduction in morphological trait of Ethiopian barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) genotypes grown under limed and unlimed soil at Holetta, Central Ethiopia

Author: Tigist Shiferaw, Thomas Tsige

ISSN 2394-966X

International Journal of Novel Research in Life Sciences                                                    

Novelty Journals

Abstract: Reports indicated that nearly 11 million hectare of soils in Ethiopia is salt affected and Abundance of soil with saline sodic property in Amibara irrigated farms is becoming a threat to crop productivity. As part of the solution to such problem soils, a field Experiment was conducted at Werer Agricultural Research during 2016,2017 and 2018 cropping season .The overall objective of this study was to ameliorate saline sodic soils through application of biochar and gypsum and subsequently to increase the grain yield of wheat. The 32 factorial experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Factor one was biochar with three levels; 0 (control), 4 and 8 t ha-1 and factor two was Gypsum with three levels; 0 (control), 50 % gypsum requirement and 100 % gypsum requirement.  Composite surface soil samples before experiment and from each treatment after harvest were collected for laboratory analysis.  The experiment revealed that application of biochar and gypsum clearly influenced soil chemical properties, number of seed per panicle, thousand seed weight and grain yield.Generally, gypsum application was superior on most crop parameters comparted to biochar. The highest grain yield was also recorded at 100 % gypsum applied treatment. Due to applied amendment fertility of saline sodic soils improvedand soil pH, Na+ and ESPshowed reduction compared to control. The lowest pH (7.60) was from 4 ton/ha Biochar + 100 % gypsum, and relative to control 4 ton/ha biocharshowed  26.30 % in ESP reduction at surface, while at 30-60 cm100 % gypsum improve sodicity problem by 31.42%. As a result, it would be more cost-effective to use 100% gypsum for the case of study area. Moreover, in future the benefit of biochar in such soil should have to be studied carefully.

Keywords: Exchangeable Sodium percentage, Soil Organic matter, Saline Sodic soil, Soil properties.

Title: EFFECT OF SOLE AND COMBINED APPLICATION OF BIOCHAR AND GYPSUM ON WHEAT PRODUCTIVITY UNDER SALINE SODIC AND SODIC SOIL CONDITION

Author: Teshome Bekele, Bethel Nekir, Lemma Mamo, Ashenafi Worku

ISSN 2394-966X

International Journal of Novel Research in Life Sciences                                                    

Novelty Journal