Horticultural crops are sources of vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber, but their cultivation is not widely practiced in developing countries, like Ethiopia due to small-scale farming systems and poor pre- and post-harvest handling techniques. In Ethiopia, particularly in northern region, the production of horticultural crops usually practiced in very few pocket areas, such as at river and lakesides. Thus, the production of fruits and vegetables is just at the beginning stage and getting momentum by governmental and non-governmental organizations. To assess the production potential and post-harvest losses of fruits and vegetables, a survey research was conducted in Tigray Regional State, northern Ethiopia. From the study area, Atsbiwenberta district was selected with its four purposely selected Kebeles (Kebelle is the lowest administrative division of Ethiopia next to districts in each administrative region) (Ruwafeleg, Felegewoni, Golgolnaele and Hayelom) in which 120 respondents (30 households from each Kebele) were participated. Data were collected from both primary and secondary data and analyzed using simple descriptive statistics like frequency, mean and percentage. From this survey research it was found that the region has the potential to produce both temperate and subtropical fruits and vegetable crops. However, their production potential was limited by different constraints starting from cultivation to consumption. Focus group discussion reveals that farmers obtained high production of potato and apple with average yield of 300–400 and 25–130 qt/ha, respectively. Conversely, post-harvest loss was significantly affected in the study area due to lack of awareness, market access, inadequate water supply and poor post-harvest handling practices. As a result, the loss of potato and other vegetable crops was ranged from 30 to 50 and 0.25 to 5 qt/ha, respectively. Therefore, designing further research projects is recommended on production and post-harvest handling of fruits and vegetables. In addition, all stakeholders should be designed market linkage and involvement of female farmers in production of horticultural crops.

Ethiopian mustard (Brassica carinata A. Braun) is one of the Brassica leafy vegetables and oilseed crops, which can withstand adverse environmental conditions. This study was conducted to characterize and evaluate the leaf attributes of 313 Ethiopian mustard accessions grown in the greenhouse and field in 2018/19 in Beijing, China. Data on 18 different leaf morphological attributes were collected based on the IBPGR for Brassica and Raphanus descriptor format and Fiji Image J. The collected data were subjected to descriptive statistics using JMP version 14 software. Results indicate that the majority of the accessions had serrated leaf margin, intermediate juvenile development, rounded apex leaf shape, absence of leaf pubescence, number of lobes > 5 and had intermediate number of leaves per plant with frequencies of 101, 213, 223, 244, 183 and 289, respectively. The accessions had also white midrib color, light green leaf color, purple petiole color, purple stem color and purple apex leaf color pigments with frequencies of 168, 165, 104, 113 and 122, respectively. Significant differences were observed among the accessions for leaf size attributes (p < 0.001) indicating their potential as leafy vegetables. Furthermore, there were significant accession × environment effects for the laminal length, total leaf length, leaf area, leaf weight and petiole length. Notably, 71% of the accessions had an average of 81 days flowering time. The multivariate cluster and principal component analyses divided the 313 accessions into eight groups with distinctive information; consisting of 81, 37, 79, 38, 14, 11, 6 and 47 accessions. Thus, this study provides important information about Ethiopian mustard germplasms that is vital for further advancement and genetic improvement of the crop.