Unlocking the genetic potential of Ethiopian fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) genotypes for future breeding

Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) is an annual spice crop and cultivated throughout the world for it's multipurpose. Even though it has long history of cultivation and importance of fenugreek, the knowledge on its variability is limited. The purpose of the study was to assess the diversity of fenugreek using survey and field experiment study. For this objective, survey study conducted at both south and north Wollo zones. The study covered a total of 168 informants (84 men and 84 women) comprising 72 general informants and 12 key informants per zone aged between 19 and 75 years. According to survey study fenugreeks is an important crop with many uses like as spice, food, fodder, and to treat different diseases. They grow mostly on July with legumes like faba bean, chickpea, lentil, grass pea and field pea. The survey study indicated that in-terms variety there was only one variety. The field experiment was conducted using thirty six fenugreek genotypes (34 accessions and 2 released varieties) with 6x6 simple lattice designs at Wollo University. ANOVA revealed that there was highly significant (p < 0.001) difference among the thirty six genotypes for all studied traits except days to emergence. The present study revealed that high heritability with high genetic advance as percent of mean, respectively, showed for almost all the studied traits like, number of pods per plant (99.6 %, 97.7 %), number of seeds per pod (98.8 %, 84.2 %), number of primary branches per plant(98.5 %, 104.4 %), number of secondary branches per plant (98.3 %, 107.6), biomass yield (97.6 %, 59.9 %), plant height (94.6 %, 63 %), thousand seeds weight (92.6 %, 66.7 %), and pods length (91.5 %, 61.1 %). Generally, the study indicate that indigenous knowledge held by fenugreek farmers has to be documented and preserved in appropriate formats including in databases and the fenugreek can be improved through selection easily with considering the traits that show high variation with genetic advance for future breeding.