Growing Food: A Guide to Food Production

LIMITATIONS

“bird resistant” varieties such as Seredo (Sereno) are less palatable due to their

high tannin (polyphenol) content, and so are not popular with farmers or their

families. As a result, their commercial value is lower than other sorghum

often less in demand than maize seed (ie quality rated more highly than

quantity).

Teff

Eragrostis tef (formerly classified as Eragrostis abyssinica or Poa abyssinica)

Lovegrass, Toff, (Warm-season) Annual Bunch Grass, Ethiopian Millet
Tafi (Oromigna), Taf (Tigrigna)—Ethiopia

2 million hectares are cultivated annually. Ethiopia is the only country in which it is
widely grown as a grain crop apart from a few small areas in Kenya.
Virtually all of the teff cultivated as a cereal is made into the Ethiopian national
food enjera. Often considered by Europeans to be “famine food” (céréale de
disette), teff is in fact a luxury item, often associated with more affluent families,
while others have to make do with sorghum or millet. White seed is especially
highly valued.
In South Africa, Kenya and Australia teff is grown as a very palatable hay crop,
and in India it is grown as a green fodder.
Teff is an annual grass, 40–120 cm tall, with very small seed (2500–3000 per
gram), easily lost (Teffa means “lost” in Amharic). It is in the genus Eragrostis, tribe
Festuceae.
There are two main types, differentiated by their seed colour:
White Teff (“Tsa’da”)—much more highly valued than brown/red teff, and suitable

about 90–120 days.
Brown or Red Teff—suitable for less fertile, shallow soils. Less valuable seed, but
considered to produce better animal fodder than white teff. The growth period is
normally shorter than white teff, about 60–100 days.
The two types are often grown together in the same field, although there is a
financial incentive for farmers to keep the more valuable white seeded types
separate from the brown. Often the brown is for home consumption and the white is
for sale.
Teff is a reliable crop that can generally be depended upon to produce at least
some yield even when it is grown in poor conditions. However, even in good
growing conditions teff does not normally yield as much as other cereal crops.

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140 TONY WINCH

Sorghum grain is susceptible to bird damage, and unfortunately the so-called

varieties.

The crop is susceptible to infestation by Striga weed (1L, pages 89–90).

and midges.

The crop is also susceptible to insect damage, especially shoot-fly, stem borer

Many varieties are slow to mature (though this may have its own advantages).

The grain is generally less palatable than maize, and as a result sorghum seed is

Teff, teff millet, or “t’ef”, is the most important grain crop in Ethiopia, where about

for deeper more fertile soils usually found below 2500 m ASL. Growth period is