Sorghum is one of the main staple food crops for the poorest and most food insecure people of the world. As Ethiopia is the centre of origin and diversity for sorghum, the crop has been cultivated for many thousands of years. Hence, indigenous knowledge based sorghum classification and naming has a long tradition.

Indigenous crops also known as orphan crops are key contributors to food security, which is becoming increasingly vulnerable with the current trend of population growth and climate change. They have the major advantage that they fit well into the general socio-economic and ecological context of developing world agriculture. However, most indigenous crops did not benefit from the Green Revolution, which dramatically increased the yield of major crops such as wheat and rice. Here, we describe the Tef Improvement Project, which employs both conventional- and molecular-breeding techniques to improve tef—an orphan crop important to the food security in the Horn of Africa, a region of the world with recurring devastating famines. We have established an efficient pipeline to bring improved tef lines from the laboratory to the farmers of Ethiopia. Of critical importance to the long-term success of this project is the cooperation among participants in Ethiopia and Switzerland, including donors, policy makers, research institutions, and farmers. Together, European and African scientists have developed a pipeline using breeding and genomic tools to improve the orphan crop tef and bring new cultivars to the farmers in Ethiopia. We highlight a new variety, Tesfa, developed in this pipeline and possessing a novel and desirable combination of traits. Tesfa’s recent approval for release illustrates the success of the project and marks a milestone as it is the first variety (of many in the pipeline) to be released.

Sorghum is one of the main staple crops for the poorest and most food insecure people of the world. Ethiopia being the center of origin and diversity for sorghum, the crop has been cultivated for many thousand years. In order to quantify socioecotype differentiation, varietal mixture, and selection efficiency, both survey research and field experiments were undertaken. Sorghum is found to be widely grown in the study area and adaptively differentiated into races, ecotypes, and varieties. The typical Durra race is found in the lowlands; Durra, Durra-Caudatum, and Caudatum are found in the intermediate altitude and Bicolor-Caudatum, Guinea-Caudatum, and Bicolor races are found in the highlands. Ecotype differentiation resulted in ecotypes and varieties specifically adapted to the crop growing environments. A transect of variety by altitude showed a genotype substitution over altitudinal ranges from the lowlands to the highlands. Socioecotypic differentiation, introduced as a new concept, is the spatial and temporal differentiation of genotypes due to the ecological and socioeconomic factors. As a way of managing the varietal mixture portfolio, 39% of the farmers exercise intervarietal replacement by varieties with better adaptation, quality, and yield. Farmers knew that there is no as such a perfect variety and it is practically impossible for a single variety to meet all the requirements. As a result, 61% of the farmers use varietal mixtures as a complementary strategy. Of these, 96% of them select and compose the varieties in the varietal mixture intentionally. Hence, the varietal components were not random selections but specific combinations. Direct and participatory on farm monitoring showed that the average number of varieties in the varietal mixture per plot was about ten. The mean number of varieties per quadrant was 4.41. The mean frequency of the varieties by type was two per quadrant. Ratooning was practiced by 30% of the farmers. The determining factors dictating ratooning were drought (71%) and pest (26%). Transplanting was one of the plant stand management strategies. Farmers' varieties showed significant variation for the yield, 1000 seed weight, plant height, and panicle weight. A significant interaction was also observed for yield between varieties and selection, and between farmer and selection. The three major varieties developed by the farmers in each wereda of eastern Ethiopia were identified and have to be promoted for production in areas of ecological adaptation and farmers' acceptance.