Abstract
Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is an important tropical cash crop cultivated in Ghana. It provides livelihood for about 200,000 people and contributes 6.1% to Ghana’s gross domestic product (GDP). Four Brazilian dwarf accessions were introduced to improve nut yield. Objectives of this study were to (1) assess the agronomic performance of the accessions across two contrasting ecologies, (2) determine environmental influence on juvenile growth, (3) determine the relationship between early vegetative growth and yield and (4) explore heritability and genetic advance for the measured agronomic traits. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Results revealed significant (p < 0.05) environmental influence on growth and yield of cashew. Transitional savanna agro-ecology is more suitable for cashew growth and development. Crop year, location and crop year × location interactions also influenced most of the agronomic traits. Early growth characteristics alone were not enough to predict yield. Genotype B2 ranked highest yielding across the agro-ecologies. Moderate to high heritability and genetic advance estimates were observed for nut yield, plant height and girth, an indication of variability among accessions needed for cashew improvement in Ghana.
Highlights
Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is an important tropical cash crop that originated from South America and is widely cultivated in the tropics of Africa
Growth patterns observed under both environments after eighteen (18) months presented differential performance of genotypes which reflects the phenomenon of genotype by environment interaction as genotypic growth were not consistent with the progression of the months
Genetic analysis for all traits measured in this study indicated the presence of significant variation among the accessions tested
Summary
Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is an important tropical cash crop that originated from South America and is widely cultivated in the tropics of Africa. In Ghana, cashew is the second most important non-traditional export commodity cash crop, which employs about 200,000 people (Buadi et al, 2013). It accounted for approximately 6.1% of the total GDP of the country in 2010 (Osei Akoto, 2010; Wongnaa & Awunyo-Vitor, 2013). The crop is diploid (2n = 42) with 21 set of chromosome pairs (Aliyu & Awopetu, 2007). It is resilient and thrives on an annual rainfall of 1500 mm to 2000 mm (Sys & Van Ranst, 1993; Adeigbe et al, 2015) and at a temperature range of 25 to 28 oC (Dendena & Corsi, 2014). Because of its versatile nature, it is usually intercropped with several food crops, such as yam, cocoyam and maize (Opoku-Ameyaw et al, 2011; Oluyemisi & Uwagboe, 2017)
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