Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) is a highly nutritious crop, predominantly grown in the semi-arid tropics of the world. Finger millet has a niche market opportunity due to its human health benefits and being rich in calcium, iron and dietary fiber and gluten-free. Ethiopia is the center of the genetic diversity of the crop. However, the productivity of finger millet in the country is low (<2.4 tons ha⁻¹) compared with its potential yield (6 tons ha⁻¹). The yield gap in Ethiopia is due to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses and socio-economic constraints that are yet to be systemically documented and prioritized to guide future production and improved variety development and release. The objective of this study was to document finger millet production opportunities, constraints and farmer-preferred traits in Ethiopia as a guide to variety design in improvement programs. A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) study was undertaken in six selected districts of the Southern Nation Nationalities People Region (SNNPR) and Oromia Region in Ethiopia. Data were collected from 240 and 180 participant farmers through a semi-structured questionnaire and focus group discussion, respectively. Finger millet was the most important crop in the study areas grown mainly for a combination of uses, including for food, feed and cash (reported by 38.8% of respondent farmers), food and feed (14.5%), food and cash (13.7%), food (11.5%) and food, cash, feed and construction material (9.7%). Hand weeding was used by 59.2% of the respondent farmers, followed by hand weeding and chemical herbicides (40.8%). Finger millet was mainly planted as a sole crop (reported by 97.0% respondents), mixed (1.7%) and sole and mixed (1.3%). About 75.6% of respondent farmers only practiced finger millet rotation with other crops. Respondent farmers indicated their source of fresh seed was from the Bureau of Agriculture (49.1%), farmer-to-farmer seed exchange (22.1%), own saved seed (7.5%), local producers (7.5%), research institutions (5.8%), unknown sources (4.1%), local market (3.5%) and cooperatives (0.42%). The total cost of finger millet production per hectare was calculated at 1249 USD with a total income of 2139 USD/ha, making a benefit to cost ratio of 1.71:1.00 and indicating the relatively low yield gains using the currently grown varieties. The main constraints to finger millet production in the study areas were drought stress (reported by 41.3% respondents), lack of improved varieties (12.9%), lack of financial resources (11.3%), small land holdings (10.8%), limited access to seed (10.0%), a shortage of fertilizers (5.4%), poor soil fertility (4.6%), shortage of draught power (1.3%), labour shortages (1.3%) and high labour costs (1.3%). The most important farmer-preferred traits in a finger millet variety were high grain yield, compact head shape, ‘enjera’-making quality, high marketability and early maturity, resolved through principal component analysis. The above-mentioned production constraints and farmer-preferred traits are strategic drivers to enhance finger millet productivity and need to be incorporated into Ethiopia’s finger millet breeding and technology development.

Finger millet is a climate‐resilient and highly nutritious small grain crop widely grown in the semi‐arid tropics. It has multiple uses, including for food, feed and beverage preparations. However, finger millet is an under‐utilized and under‐researched crop with a mean yield of <1.0 t/ha despite a potential productivity of up to 8 t/ha. The yield gap is attributed to several production constraints, such as biotic and abiotic stresses, a lack of access to improved seeds and production inputs and poor agronomic management practices. There are valuable genetic resources and genetic variability of finger millet in its centres of diversity and global gene banks for variety design, product development and commercialization. The genetic variability can be harnessed further to integrate essential traits into candidate varieties through conventional and modern breeding methods. Breeding and genetic innovations such as genomics‐assisted breeding, mutation breeding and genome editing would accelerate finger millet breeding and new variety design and deployment. The objective of this review was to document the opportunities, challenges and prospects of finger millet improvement as a guide for variety development and deployment with enhanced grain yield and nutritional contents. The first section describes global production status and yield gains, major production and productivity challenges in finger millet. This is followed by an in‐depth presentation on breeding and genetic progress on variety development with improved agronomic and nutritional quality traits, drought and salinity tolerance, and fungal diseases, weeds and insect pest resistance. Further, the review summarized finger millet's genetic and genomic resources, reference genomes, whole genome re‐sequencing and transcriptomics of finger millet technologies, genetic engineering and genome editing and their integration with conventional breeding methods for variety design with desired end‐use traits. The review provides foundational information to expedite the development of new‐generation finger millet cultivars with desirable product profiles, including high grain yield potential, early maturity, desirable seed colour, compact head type, food and feed nutrients quality and high marketability through modern breeding approaches.

The present study consists of 14 sorghum genotypes evaluated at Bako, Jimma and Mechara research centers to study genetic variability and interrelationships of traits with grain yield. The experiment was conducted by using randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications during 2014 and 2015 main rainy season. Data on important agronomic traits were collected. The combined analysis of variance (ANOVA) across years and locations showed highly significant differences among genotypes for all traits, indicating the presence of sufficient variability among the genotypes. Environmental coefficients of variation (ECV), genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV) and Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) ranges of the study are days to 50% maturity (DM, 0.49) to number of seeds per panicle (NSPP, 6.11); DM (0.31) to PAS (16.99) and DM (1.12) to GY (20.86) in the same order. High h2BS values were observed in hundred seed weight (HSW, 76%), DS (70%), plant height (PH, 65%) and PAS (63). High value of genetic advance as a percentage of mean (GA% µ) was recorded by PAS (27.42%), PH (26.29%) and DS (20.65%) and moderate amount of GA%µ was recorded by HSW (11.78%) and HW (11.08%). High h2BS coupled with high to moderate GA%µ was reported for PH (65 and 26.29%); HSW (76 and 11.78%); PAS (63 and 27.42%) and DS (70 and 20.65%) indicating PH and HSW are controlled by additive gene action. GY had strong positive genotypic association with HW (0.99) followed by NSPP (0.96). These results suggested that any positive increase in such traits will increase the grain yield. The genotypic path analysis also showed that head weight per plot (HW, 1.96) and PH (0.55), had high and very high positive direct effect, respectively on GY indicating that these traits are the most important yield component traits. Hence, due consideration should be given to these traits while selecting promising lines. Key words: Correlation coefficient, genetic advance, heritability, path coefficient, sorghum.

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Introduction: Finger millet ( Eleusine coracana ) is a high-potential, climate-resilient and nutrient-rich small cereal with growing potential for food, feed, and other value-added products across various market segments. Knowledge on the combining ability and heterosis of breeding populations under contrasting water regimes is essential for genetic improvement of the crop for economics traits. The aim of this study was to determine the combining ability, heterosis, and the nature of gene action of selected Ethiopian finger millet parents for economic traits in hybrid combinations to guide the selection of best families and new breeding populations. Methods: A 7 × 10 line × tester mating design was used, and the resultant 70 F ₁ hybrids and 17 parents were evaluated under non-stressed (NST) and drought-stress (ST) conditions across greenhouse and field environments. Genotypes were profiled for major agronomic traits: plant height (PTH), days to 50% flowering (DTF), days to maturity (DTM), number of productive tillers per plant (NT), primary finger length (FL), ear length (EL), number of fingers per ear (NF), grain yield (GY), harvest index (HI), and thousand seed weight (TSW). Results: Line (GCA _L ), tester (GCA _T ), and line × tester (SCA) mean squares were significant (p < 0.001) for all assessed traits, indicating contributions of both additive and non-additive gene actions in the inheritance of agronomic and physiological traits. Grain yield declined by 57% in parental genotypes and 62% in F ₁ hybrids under drought stress; however, several superior crosses exhibited relatively lower yield penalties (-51%), indicating enhanced drought resilience. Additive genetic effect predominantly conditioned the inheritance of DTF, EL, DTM under ST conditions, whereas non-additive effects were more important for NT and DTM under NST conditions. Broad-sense heritability (H ² ) for GY was higher under ST (0.51) than NST (0.13) conditions, necessitating multiple testing environments for drought tolerance evaluation and selection. Lines such as G3, G2, and G4 and testers such as G14, G8, G13, G17, and G10 exhibited higher general combining ability effects for GY in a desirable trend, in that order. Furthermore, crosses G85, G31, G79, G38, G48, G54, G64, and G65 exhibited higher specific combining ability effects and heterosis for GY under ST conditions. Discussion: The results demonstrated substantial genetic variability for grain yield and related traits with additive and non-additive gene actions. This guides effective selection based on additive and non-additive gene effects in finger millet improvement. The selected parents and the top crosses are recommended for breeding and selecting new-generation, drought-adapted finger millet genotypes.