Zinc is an essential micronutrient for crop growth and human diet. Its deficiency is widespread in soils of Tigray Region. To evaluate the effects of Zn fertilizers on yield and quality of tef in ten Zn deficient soils of Tigray, greenhouse experiment composed of five treatments in a completely randomized design with three replications were conducted. Treatments were 0 Zn, Zn in 100 kg NPSZn ha-1, (100 kg NPSZn + 2 kg Zn) ha-1, (100 kg NPSZn + 4 kg Zn) ha-1 and (100 kg NPSZn + 8 kg Zn) ha-1. Although the increases were not statistically different from the treatment with 2 kg ha-1 Zn, biomass and grain yields and grain Zn concentration of tef increased significantly by 36, 27 and 15% over the control with additional Zn of 4 kg ha-1. This indicates that additional 2 to 4 kg Zn ha-1 might be needed beyond the Zn content in the 100 kg NPSZn compound fertilizer. In the contrary, grain Zn concentration increased linearly with Zn application rates beyond 100 kg NPSZn application. Compared with no application, Zn fertilizer at the highest rate increased grain Zn concentration from 18.04 to 23.4 mg kg-1 on average. The findings suggest that soil applied Zn is important to maintain sufficient yield, but has a modest biological impact on human health. Integrating soil Zn application with other agronomic practices might improve both yield and grain Zn of tef.
