Contribution of home garden vegetables on reducing stunting among 6- to 23-month-old children in South Tigray, northern Ethiopia.

The study was conducted to analyze the contribution of home garden vegetables in reducing stunting among 6- to 23-month-old children from South Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. The quasi-experimental study design was used. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the districts and study communities. A total of 94 purposively selected vegetable producer (intervention) households and 260 randomly selected non-producer (control) households were included in the study (1:3 ratio). The recumbent length of children was measured using horizontal wooden board to the nearest 0.1 cm. The length-for-age Z-scores were computed using WHO-Anthro 2006 software. Propensity score-matching and difference-in-difference (DID) estimates were used to analyze data using STATA software version 12. Prevalence of child stunting was 19.8 (12.7-29.4) and 21.1 (16.4-26.7)% (baseline) and 43.5 (33.5-54.1) and 46.5 (45.7-47.2)% (end line) among intervention and control groups, respectively. Child stunting was higher for boys and older children from both intervention and control households. DID estimation revealed that there was no significant difference in child stunting between intervention and control households (DID = 1.7, p = .604). However, there was an intervention effect of -0.5, 2.5, and 1.7% in the prevalence of child stunting among females, males, and both sexes, respectively. Vegetable production as an intervention strategy reduced the prevalence of stunting in children aged 6-23 months. However, vegetable production needs to be well integrated with other nutrition-sensitive interventions to realize the objective of reducing child stunting.

Treatment of seeds with sodium azide for quantitative and qualitative capsule traits at M2 generation of Fourteen Ethiopian sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) genotypes.

This study aimed at investigating the effects of sodium azide (NaN3) on quantitative and qualitative capsule traits in M2 generation of 14 Ethiopian sesame genotypes collected from Humera Agricultural Research Center (HuARC), Tigrai. Both the treatment and control seeds were sown in well-prepared beds in greenhouse to develop M2 plants. Data on quantitative and qualitative traits were collected and analyzed using GenStat 16 software. Results showed significant differences among the M2 seeds treated with 0.75% NaN3. The highest mean number of capsules per plant was recorded in ACC44 and Baha Necho genotypes, while the lowest was recorded in Gumero, Setit 2, Hirhir, ADI, Bounji and Aberghele. The highest mean number of seeds per capsule was recorded in Humera 1, Baha Necho, Zeri Tesfay, and Gondar 1 genotypes and the lowest was recorded in Setit 1, Setit 2 and ADI. The highest mean capsule length was observed in Zeri Tesfay while the lowest was recorded in Aberghele. The qualitative data reported that Hirhir, Setit 1 and Setit 2 were changed from completely shattering to partially shattering, Gumero and Bounji were changed from completely shattering to non-shattering, and Zeri Tesfay was changed from partially shattering to non-shattering. The 14 genotypes were clustered into four distinct groups including cluster I containing six genotypes, cluster II and III containing two genotypes each and cluster IV containing four genotypes. The mutants developed from Zeri Tesafy, ACC44 and Baha Necho genotypes are considered as potential candidate mutants for further utilization in sesame improvement.

Generating better leaf traits in M2 lines of fourteen Ethiopian sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) genotypes through the treatment of their seeds with sodium azide.

The present study explored the effect of sodium azide (NaN3) on quantitative and qualitative leaf traits of M2 lines on 14 Ethiopian sesame genotypes collected from Humera Agricultural Research Center, Tigrai, Ethiopia. Qualitative data on leaf color, leaf hairiness, leaf arrangement, leaf shape, basal leaf profile, basal leaf margin, and leaf angle to main stem as well as quantitative data on length of basal leaf, length of top leaf, width of basal leaf, width of top leaf, length of marginal leaf, and width of marginal leaf were recorded and analyzed using analysis of variance, clustering analysis, Mahalanobis distance, and principal component analysis. Generally, treatment of seeds with NaN3 has brought many distinct and statistically significant phenotypic changes on both quantitative and qualitative leaf traits of the M2 lines. The changes in the NaN3 treated and locally adapted genotypes of Gumero and Zeri Tesfay are promising; producing the highest mean length of basal leaf (p ≤ 0.01). NaN3 treated seeds of Baha Necho, Gumero, and Hirhir developed the highest mean width of basal leaf. Locally adapted genotypes have responded positively to NaN3 treatment, generating better leaf traits as compared to the research improved ones. This study was the first of its kind in exploring the effects of NaN3 seed treatment on leaf traits of sesame genotypes. The findings of this study will, therefore, serve as a steppingstone to look into the effects of the changes in sesame yield and initiate future genetic and molecular studies on the responsive genotypes.