Articles
Agronomic trait variation and their genetic relationship among taro genotypes (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) grown in dryland areas of South Africa
Article number
1460_8
Pages
71 – 76
Language
English
Abstract
Taro (Colocasia esculenta) is an important tuber crop with significant potential for improvement.
It has high potential for playing an increasingly significant role in food, nutritional, and income security in southern Africa.
The objective of this study was to assess the quantitative traits of taro accessions collected in the farmers’ fields, under their agro-ecological conditions, to identify superior potential parental lines for improvement of the crop’s traits.
Fifteen taro accessions were planted under rainfed conditions in a randomized complete block design with three replications in a farmer’s field in South Africa.
The data recorded were number of leaves (NL), leaf length (LL), leaf width (LW), plant height (PH), number of corms (NC), corm length (CL), canopy diameter (CD), corm width (CW), number of suckers (NS) and corm yield (CY) in kg plant-1. Highly significant variation (p≤0.01) was observed for the trats evaluated except leaf length, number of suckers and corm yield, indicating a high degree of variability within the collection.
Significant (p<0.01) and positive correlations were observed between CD and NC, LL, PH, CL, LW, and LN. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the first component (PC1) accounted for 63.16% quantitative traits such as NL, LL, LW, PH, NC, CL, CD, CW, and NS. The accessions ‘Umbu7’, ‘Umbu10’, ‘Amad_2919’, ‘Amad_3053 Ex’, ‘Amad6_8’, ‘Amad7_2’ and ‘Aamd_2053Ex’ displayed desirable agronomic characters which could be selected as parental lines and exploited for varietal development of taro in South Africa.
It has high potential for playing an increasingly significant role in food, nutritional, and income security in southern Africa.
The objective of this study was to assess the quantitative traits of taro accessions collected in the farmers’ fields, under their agro-ecological conditions, to identify superior potential parental lines for improvement of the crop’s traits.
Fifteen taro accessions were planted under rainfed conditions in a randomized complete block design with three replications in a farmer’s field in South Africa.
The data recorded were number of leaves (NL), leaf length (LL), leaf width (LW), plant height (PH), number of corms (NC), corm length (CL), canopy diameter (CD), corm width (CW), number of suckers (NS) and corm yield (CY) in kg plant-1. Highly significant variation (p≤0.01) was observed for the trats evaluated except leaf length, number of suckers and corm yield, indicating a high degree of variability within the collection.
Significant (p<0.01) and positive correlations were observed between CD and NC, LL, PH, CL, LW, and LN. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the first component (PC1) accounted for 63.16% quantitative traits such as NL, LL, LW, PH, NC, CL, CD, CW, and NS. The accessions ‘Umbu7’, ‘Umbu10’, ‘Amad_2919’, ‘Amad_3053 Ex’, ‘Amad6_8’, ‘Amad7_2’ and ‘Aamd_2053Ex’ displayed desirable agronomic characters which could be selected as parental lines and exploited for varietal development of taro in South Africa.
Authors
A.S. Gerrano
Keywords
accessions, agronomic traits, quantitative traits, yield
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