LIMITATIONS (Teff)
Teff seed is very small which makes it a very labour intensive crop. Every step,
from land preparation, weeding and thinning, harvesting, threshing to the final
cleaning and cooking is laborious. The seedbed should be fine, well prepared
and free of weeds; the land is ploughed at least twice - up to an astonishing five
times, a herculean task.
The supply of well adapted, improved varieties is limited. Seed supply in
general is not always regular, and the varieties most useful for certain areas are
not always available.
Brown and white seed types are often grown together which can cause problems
with crops maturing unevenly and with adapting to soil type and altitude.
Yields of teff grain are often low, though this is often more than compensated
by high prices in comparison with other cereals.
Wheat
Triticum aestivum (Syn. T. sativum, T. vulgare)
Bread Wheat, Common Wheat; Blé, Froment (France); Weizen (Germany);
Trigo (Spanish & Portuguese); Gehun,Genhu (Hindi); Qamr (Arabic); Sernay,
Shinray (Tigrinha, Ethiopia/Eritrea); Ajja/Addja {T. durum}, Sinday (Amharic,
Ethiopia), Qamaadii (Oromifa, Ethiopia); Otiliko (Angola); Ghaanum (Pashtu);
Gandum/Gandom (Dari), Garma (Winter Wheat, in Dari)
Also sometimes used as the word for oats.
Wheat is one of the three most important cereals in the world, in terms of both the
area grown and production, together with rice and maize. According to the FAO,
global production in 2004 was 627 million MT, grown mainly in China, Russia,
USA, India, France, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Pakistan and Argentina.
Wheat was one of the earliest food crops domesticated, around 8000 BC, in the
Fertile Crescent of southwest Asia, together with barley and some of the legumes.
Einkorn (T. monococcum) and Emmer (T. dicoccum) were the early precursors of
today’s wheats.
Wheat is highly adaptable, and different varieties of wheat are adapted to grow at
altitudes from sea level to 3500 m and between latitudes 60 North and South; it is
grown in virtually every climatic zone except the lowland tropics.
Like the other true cereals wheat is an annual grass, a member of the Poaceae
(Graminae) family, which grows about 30–120 cm tall. Plants can compensate for
thinly sown crops by producing many tillers.
The panicle, or seed head, is formed into a compound spike which may be
awned, or bearded, like barley, or, more commonly, without awns. It is mainly self-
pollinated.