Teff

Teff 

(Eragrostis Teff), an annual plant species of the family Gramineae. Teff has a powerful fibrous root system and leafy shoots. The culm, which is 60–160 cm tall, is slender, solid, and smooth. The inflorescence is a many-spiked panicle measuring 15–35 cm long. The fruit is an ovate caryopsis.

Teff is known only in cultivation. It has long been raised as a cereal crop in mountainous regions of Africa and as a feed crop in India, Australia, the South African Republic, the USA, and the USSR. (There are experimental plantings in the Ukraine and the Northern Caucasus.) Teff is thermophile and drought resistant; the seeds sprout at 10°–12°C. Cultivation is most successful on sandy loams. Teff grows very rapidly; it grows well after mowing and yields two or three crops. It is cut for hay when the panicles first appear, and for green feed somewhat earlier. Two cuttings yield 140–150 quintals per hectare (ha) green mass, 35–45 quintais per ha hay, and 4–8 quintals per ha seed. One hundred kilograms of hay contain about 42 feed units and about 5 kg digestible protein. Teff is readily eaten by all species of farm animals in uncured form and as hay.

REFERENCES

Kormovye rasteniia senokosov i pastbishch SSSR, vol. 1. Edited by I. V. Larin. Moscow-Leningrad, 1950.
Vul’f, E. V., and O. F. Maleeva. Mirovye resursy poleznykh rastenii: Spravochnik. Leningrad, 1969.

N. K. TATARINOVA