Field evaluation of 33 Bambara groundnut lines were carried out to estimate genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) result showed significant differences for 14 of the 17 agronomic traits studied. The results on the variance components revealed that phenotypic variance had values (vigour index 2.30, pod length 10.09, seed length 1.64) that were slightly higher than the respective genotypic variance (vigour index 1.68, pod length 9.88, seed length 0.26). Similarly, the values (number of branches 41.91, number of nodes 68.72, internode length 59.02) of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were slightly higher than the corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) (number of branches 40.11, number of nodes 66.98, internode length 57.31), suggesting a substantial genetic variability that can serve as a base for Bambara groundnut improvement. High estimates of heritability were observed for most characters like number of branches (95.70%), number of nodes (97.46%), internode length (97.10%), pod length (97.91%), and seed length (93.79%). Likewise, genetic advance values for most traits were high, pod length (201), number of nodes (200), internode length (200), number of branches (197) and seed yield (195), implying that improvement of seed yield in Bambara groundnut can be achieved through direct selection.
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Climate change has imposed greater challenge on cowpea production in the savannah ecology of West Africa sub-region in the recent time, however, development of varieties that combined resilience (stability) and precocity with high seed yield would be a sustainable approach to mitigate this problem. To this end, nine advanced breeding lines were evaluated along with two commercial varieties across three locations in guinea savannah ecology, using a randomized complete block design of three replications. Results obtained for seed yield and yield components indicate that the eleven cowpeas exhibited substantial variability for all plant traits studied and implications discussed. Additive Main Effect and Multiplicative Interaction (AMMI) analysis however revealed that the variations recorded were substantially attributable to genotypic component (70–80%) and less of environment (0.7–7.0%), a measure of phenotypic stability of these cowpea lines. However, seed yield and yield components vary significantly across the three locations, which further emphasize the important role of soil and climatic variables to cowpea production. In this study, two varieties (IT07K-299-6 and IT11K-61-82) consistently combined high seed yield (> 2 tons/ha) with precocity across the three locations, and could be multiplied for distribution to farmers as short-term intervention for yield increase. Reduced seed viability of these varieties reflects seed storage challenge in cowpea farming. In addition to significant contributions of some yield components to seed yield, there was evidence of strong association between precocity and high yield, and its implication for cowpea improvement discussed.
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An experiment was conducted to evaluate genetic variation among twenty-one fluted pumpkin genotypes for seedling traits. The seeds of the fluted pumpkin were germinated in nursery bags filled with saw dust at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria between July and August, 2013. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design with three replications. Characters evaluated were emergence percentage (E%), emergence index, emergence index rate, vine length (cm), leaf area (cm2), number of leaves, shoot dry weight (g), and seedling vigour index (SVI). Significant (
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Indian spinach (
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