Assessment of Morphological Variation of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) in Ghana

Abstract

Genetic diversity in crops is critical for advanced crop improvement as it provides alternatives for breeders to develop improved cultivars. Traditionally, morphological traits are used to evaluate genetic divergence and classify existing germplasm. Morphological characterization relies on plants possessing different phenotypic traits to identify the individual. Information on the diversity of peanut grown in Ghana is limited. This study was conducted to determine variation in peanut cultivars in Ghana through morphological characterization. Ninety-five accessions of peanut were collected from three sources across five administrative regions of the country that included farmers, open markets, and research institutes. Morphological characterization comprised 31 characters including 11 quantitative and 20 qualitative traits. Seventy-five percent of the accessions belonged to the fastigiata subspecies. The study revealed through cluster analysis that the accessions were only 30% diverse. Principal Component Analysis of the traits showed that yield attributing traits were the main factor that influences dispersion and superior accessions. These traits included seed length, growth habit, pod length, pod width, plant width, and main stem height. This study demonstrates that phenotypic diversity of peanut cultivars in Ghana is limited.