Enset (Enset ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) Breeding for Various Purposes - A Review

Enset (Enset ventricosum (Welw) Cheesman) is a well-known cultivated crop in Ethiopia and a cultural staple food for over 20 million humans in different parts of Ethiopia. It bears flowers that developed into fruits and seeds. It bears seeds and propagated vegetativly. Attempts have been done for maintenance, conservation, improving cultivars, diversity, and variability study. About 623 Enset germplasm were collected from 12 main growing areas and ex-situ conserved at Areka. Seeds of Enset were stored at the millennium gene bank. Seedlings and specimens are held in the garden of Cambridge Cottage and Wakehurst. In the research effort 6 cultivars- 3 early set cultivars- Yanbulle, Gewada, Endale, and 3 late set cultivars- Kelisa, Zerita, Mesena were released. Variability study revealed that corn yields were significantly affected by location, cultivar, and cultivar Vs location. Genotypes- Suite, Warke, Bidu, Astera, and Kekari showed 100% disease symptoms after 30 days of inoculation. Symptoms weren't observed on Meziya, Bedadet, Hiniba, and Nech Enset clones after 90 days of inoculation. ISSRs primers revealed that, in all parameters, Kefficho genotypes have been more diversified than genotypes from Essera areas. The Partitioning of Shannon's diversity index indicated that the major variations were occurred within populations than between the two populations.