Abstract
Information on combining ability and reciprocal effects (REC) facilitates efficient utilization of genetic materials in a breeding program. This study was conducted (at the CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Ghana) to determine general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA), heritability, genetic advance, GCA, and SCA effects as well as the relationship between parents per se performance and progenies for yield components and maturity traits in cowpea. The test populations were derived using a 5 × 5 complete diallel cross of parents with different yield attributes and maturity durations. The results indicated that GCA was predominant for number of days to 90% pod maturity, plant height at maturity, and hundred-seed weight. This showed that genes with additive effects conditioned these traits. Padi-Tuya, Songotra, and IT86D-610 were identified as good general combiners for grain yield, while Sanzi-Nya was identified as a general combiner for developing extra-early duration cowpea varieties. Crosses Songotra × Sanzi-Nya, SARC-1-57-2 × IT86D-610, Songotra × SARC-1-57-2, and Padi-Tuya × Songotra were identified as good specific combiners for days to 50% flowering, pod length, pods per plant, pod yield, grain yield, and seeds per pod. The findings from this study provide useful information on the inheritance of early maturity and yield traits in cowpea. This can be exploited to develop high yielding and early maturing cowpea varieties as climate smart strategy to mitigate climate change via breeding methods such as pedigree selection and marker assisted backcrossing (MABC). Pedigree selection method is being used to develop varieties from the hybrid with high and significant SCA for grain yield, whereas the development of extra-early duration varieties via MABC with Sanzi-Nya (general combiner for earliness traits) as a donor parent is ongoing.
Highlights
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) (2n 2x 22) is one of the most commonly cultivated grain legumes in sub-Saharan Africa, possibly because of its relatively wide adaptation to drought and ability to give appreciable yields on low-nutrient soils, where other crops would fail
Analysis of Variance. e results of analysis of variance showed highly significant (p < 0.0001) difference for all the measured traits (Table 2). e mean squares due to general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) were highly significant for all the traits. e mean squares for the reciprocals showed significant differences for all the traits except pod yield (PLYD)
Maternal effects were significant for grain yield, pod yield, days to 50% flowering (DFF), and days to first flower appearance (DFFA)
Summary
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) (2n 2x 22) is one of the most commonly cultivated grain legumes in sub-Saharan Africa, possibly because of its relatively wide adaptation to drought and ability to give appreciable yields on low-nutrient soils, where other crops would fail. E haulms of cowpea are used for high quality feed, during the dry season when livestock feed is scarce, making the crop an essential and integral part of sustainable crop-livestock farming systems in the sub-Saharan Africa [3]. Cowpea, being a fastcycle crop, can be grown successfully at least three times a year and fits well in the cropping system in the savannah ecologies of Ghana. It is widely cultivated in all ecologies and is a constituent crop in most farming systems, grown either as intercrop or relay crop, in the northern parts of the e Scientific World Journal country [4]. Most farmers in northern Ghana cultivate preseason, early-maturing cultivars to provide food for workers during the main season’s farming activities
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