ADAPTABILITY TEST OF EIGHT (08) COWPEA CULTIVARS (VIGNA UNGUICULATA (L.)) IN THE HIGH GUINEAN SAVANNAH ZONE OF CAMEROON

Abstract

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) is one of the World’s major legumes that has a major role in human and livestock nutrition due to its high protein content which varies from 22 to 30% of the dry weight of grains and leaves, from 13 to 17% in haulms. It is cultivated mostly in the Tropical and Subtropical region of Africa. In Cameroon, the cultivated area is 38.000 ha with a yield of 0.827 tons/ha for a production of 31.000 tons, with the Far North as the main supplier of this production in order to develop the Cowpea sector in the high Guinean savannah zone. The study is conducted in the locality of Bini-Dang (Ngaoundéré) on eight Cowpea cultivars introduce. The experiment consisted on a genotypic evaluation of different varieties which are selected. The experimental setup is a randomized block with 3 repetitions. The analyses of variance showed a significant difference on genotypic parameters: the emergence rate, onset of flowering at 50%, the maturation at 50%, the number of leaves, the height of plants, the number of fruiting nodes, the number of pods, the length of pods, the number of seeds per pod, the hundred seed weight and the yield per plant of the different varieties. The results showed the best performing varieties on yield like TN-27-80 (3576 kg/ha) and TN985-1399 (3269 kg/ha) and IT99K573-1-2 (3000 kg/ha). The variables on the agronomic parameters are all credible to operate the selection because of their broad sense of heritabilities for all the variabilities with h2 comprised between 0.63 and 0.98. The correlation among studied parameters is significant (P˂0.05) and positive for the number of fruiting nodes and number of leaves per plant, the number of pods, the number of seeds per pod and the yield. The weight of hundred seed and the length of pod is significantly negative between the plant height and the number of leaves. This study shows the possibility of expanding Cowpea cultivation on this high Guinean savannah zone by using the eight cultivars tested.