Triticale adaption and competence assessment result in the high lands of Ethiopia

Triticale is a crop that resulted from the addition of chromosomes of wheat (Triticum aestivum ) and rye cereals (Secale cereale). The crop came on the market as bread cereal in the 1980s. Different varieties were released. Triticale is a high yielding crop when compared with tef, wheat and barley, particularly on locations with soil nutrient deficiency. The study was initiated with the question to which extent the growing of triticale crop (Triticosecale Wittmack) improves food security, and which factors can play a major role for its successful adoption, particularly in major food insecure areas of Ethiopia. The study has three main objectives: (1) to investigate the adaptability of triticale to the Ethiopian agro-ecological conditions, particularly in areas with low soil fertility, hence this is a crop considered to provide considerably a higher harvest under low agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer, insects and pests sprays; (2) to analyze the injera--and bread-baking quality of the crop in comparison with tef (a staple cereal limited to Ethiopia) and wheat cereals, and examine the acceptance by consumers of these products made from this grain. The study was conducted in the two major triticale producing districts (wereda), Farta and Estie of the South Gondar Administrative Zone in the Amhara Region, Ethiopia. The production of crops and the adoption of triticale as a new technology by smallholder farmers are influenced by several factors such as family size, age, gender and education of the household head, availability of agricultural extension services and farm credits, and labour. Despite the high yield and widespread adoption of triticale crop in the study areas and the Amhara Region at large, it faced some amount of resistance from a few farmers and some agriculturalists. This is because of the possibility of soil nutrients exploitation by the triticale plant, with a consequent drop of nutrition for the succeeding crops. This is however, a hardly valid concern, since triticale takes up soil nutrients the same as other cereals do, there is the same need to replace the removed nutrients by compost and organic and/ or chemical fertilizers. The suitability of triticale grain for the preparation of a variety of foods such as the main staple food injera and bread, and local beverages were tasted and acknowledged by the sample households, which was asserted by the researcher's own experiment during a workshop. Based on the investigation results concerning the quality of triticale grain for injera and bread baking, it shall be underscored that in spite of the fact that tef and wheat flours outperformed triticale flour in the 0:100 (triticale to tef, and triticale to wheat). Triticale flour provided the best or "most preferred quality" of injera and bread in the 25:75 triticale to tef, and triticale to wheat) mixtures ratio respectively, followed by the 50:50 mix-ratios. Triticale grain has also provided very good quality of tella and areke/areqe (locally distilled schnapps like vodka), which is comparable with that from finger millet (Eleusinecoracana) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor).