Determination of optimum plant density of broadcasting, row planting and transplanting on yield and yield components of Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter] in Central Zone of Tigray, Ethiopia

The low national   tef productivity is mainly attributed by lack of improved agronomic practices.  The row planting and transplanting is one of the promising planting techniques proved to boost the yield of tef. The objective was to determine the optimum seed rate, row, broadcasting and plant population in intra and inter row spacing of transplanted tef. A field experiment was carried out at Laelay maychew and Naeder adet for two years. The experiment was laid out in RCBD with three replications having 3×3 (9 m2)  and seven treatments.  The analysis of variance showed that there were a significance difference at (P≤0.001) for days to maturity, plant height and panicle length, whereas grain yield was significantly difference at (P≤0.01). The treatment with transplanting 20 cm intra row spacing distance resulted in the highest grain yield of 2586 kgha-1 followed by broadcasting at 5 kgha-1 (2547.2 kgha-1). Even though there was a significant difference among the treatments, combined mean performance of grain yield showed that there was no statically significant difference mainly among treatments of transplanting with 20×20 and 20×15 cm inters and intra row spacing and broadcasting at 5 kg ha-1 which was recorded as the higher grain yield. The present study recommended that the use of the broadcasting with seed rate of 5 kgha-1 and even though the transplanting is a labor consumer, it might be important for early drought faced tef growing areas with intra row spacing of 20×15 cm depending on the rain fail condition. Further tef planter machine development for lower seed rate is needed. Key words: Tef transplanting, seeding rate, row spacing.