different conditions, can be created from Ethiopia's broad germplasm base.

It seems likely that demand will increase worldwide for nonweedy annual grasses that can serve as temporary ground covers. South Africans are now using tef as a "nurse crop" that quickly covers the ground and fosters the establishment of perennial grasses sown along with it. This should be tested elsewhere, too. In South Africa it is already used in mixtures to protect road cuts, open-cast mine workings, stream banks, and other erodible sites.²³

Tef has evolved on the Ethiopian highlands on vertisol (black cotton) soils that frequently get waterlogged. Few other cereals can be grown there. In fact, tef is able to withstand wet conditions perhaps better than any cereal other than rice. It even grows in partly waterlogged plots, as well as on acidic soils.²⁴

Vertisols are a problem in many parts of the tropics. They are cracking clays that regularly heave and sag and split.²⁵ Few crop plants can withstand such soil abuse. Tef might be a savior for such sites. India, in particular, has vast areas of these "impossible" soils.

Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter

Poa abyssinica Jacq.; Eragrostis abyssinica (Jacq.) Link

Afrikaans: tef, gewone bruin tef (ou bruin)

Arabic: tahf

English: tef, teff, Williams lovegrass

Ethiopia: tafi (Oromo/Afar/Sodo), tafe-e (Had); t'ef, teff, taf(Amarinya, Tigrinya languages)

French: mil éthiopien

Malawi: chimanganga, ndzungula (Ch), chidzanjala (Lo)