Abstract

The current study used principal component analysis to evaluate the relationship and genetic variability among 49 tef genotypes for drought-prone areas. To improve tef productivity, farmers need high-yielding and drought tolerant tef cultivars. The objective of this research was to evaluate genetic diversity among drought tolerant tef inbred lines for yield, yield-contributing traits. Component I contributed 40% of the total variability in this report, with traits such as days to heading, days to physiological maturity, plant height, panicle length, culm length, number of spikelet per panicle, number of primary panicle branches per main shoot, lodging index, above-ground biomass, and harvest index. Component II total variability is 14 % due to grain filling time, number of total tillers per plant, number of fertile tillers per plant, days to maturity, peduncle length, number of florets per spikelet, and thousand-seed weight. Various traits such as days to seedling emergence, culm length, peduncle length, lodging index, aboveground biomass yield, grain yield, harvest index, number of total and fertile tillers per plant consolidated the remaining variability of 13, 7 and 6% in component III, component IV and component V, respectively. The first five axes explained 79 % of the total variation among 18 characters. As a result of the principal component analysis, it was revealed that the tef inbred lines have a lot of genetic variability. Drought-tolerant traits with a high genetic variability may result in a significant level of gene transfer during breeding programs.