Sorghum Crop Improvement For Dryland Systems
Breeding, physiological phenotyping, genotype-by-environment analysis, and variety development for stress-prone production environments.
This body of work focused on sorghum improvement for dryland production systems in Ethiopia. It combined crossing, hybridization, heterosis exploitation, large-scale field phenotyping, and multi-environment trial analysis.
The research linked transpiration efficiency, root architecture, stress responses, agronomic performance, and genotype-by-environment interactions to identify stable, high-performing germplasm. It contributed to the development and release of three improved sorghum varieties and supported additional releases through team-based breeding work.
Methods included quantitative genetics, molecular breeding, SNP-based genotyping, genotype-phenotype association analysis, and data-driven selection pipelines.
Outputs
Journal articles
- Spatial analysis separates stable sorghum genotypes and mega-environments for grain yield. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2021. DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2021.123027
- Locally developed sorghum hybrids show combining ability and heterosis for grain and biomass yield. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2020. DOI: 10.4236/AJPS.2020.1112151
- Genotype-by-environment analysis identifies sorghum genotypes for the Ethiopian highlands. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2020. DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2020.1112136
- Multi-environment and spatial analysis identifies high-yielding sorghum hybrids for dry lowlands. Journal of Plant Breeding and Crop Science, 2020. DOI: 10.5897/JPBCS2019.0850
- Spatial multi-environment analysis identifies advanced sorghum lines for moisture-stress areas. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 2020. DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2020.1110117
- Multi-environment and spatial analysis characterizes early-maturing sorghum genotypes for dry lowlands. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 2020. DOI: 10.5897/ajar2019.14495
- Gene action, combining ability and heterosis characterized in Ethiopian sorghum lines under moisture stress. African Journal of Plant Science, 2020. DOI: 10.5897/AJPS2019.1813
- Drought tolerance in sorghum rests on mechanisms that breeding methods can target. Academic Research Journal of Agricultural Science and Research, 2019. Review. DOI: 10.14662/ARJASR2019.007
Books and manuals
- Sorghum Breeding Manual. Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, 2019. ISBN 978999466658.
- Heterotic Performance and Combining Ability in Sorghum. LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2020. ISBN: 9786203025965
- Major achievements, challenges, and prospects of sorghum and millet research and development. Proceedings of the 50th Anniversary of Melkassa Agricultural Research Center, 2019.