Abstract
Twenty accessions of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam) cultivated under rain-fed conditions were evaluated based on their agromorphological traits to assess diversity in yield, morphology and other key agronomic characteristics of the accessions under study. The accessions consisted of 13 local and 7 exotic breeding lines grown in the research farm of the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute during the rainy and dry seasons of 2011. The Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used with four replicates. Results indicate high genetic variability among the 20 accessions based on the agromorphological and yield characteristics. The exotic accession (US 020) recorded the highest total root yield and harvest index of 56.32 t/ha and 57.11%, respectively, indicating its superiority over the local accessions. Two accessions (ER 001 and HMA 2) were found to be possible duplicates. This study provides valuable information that can be utilised in a breeding programme to ameliorate local clones of sweet potato in Ghana. Key words: Sweet potato, accessions, agromorphological characteristics, harvest index, total root yield, percent dry matter, Ghana.
Highlights
IntroductionSweet potato is the world’s seventh most important food crop after wheat, rice, maize, potato, barley and cassava, and second most important tuber crop after cassava with a yearly production of 106 million tonnes (FAOSTATs, 2010; Loebenstein, 2009; Hijmans et al, 2001)
Correlation analysis was performed to delineate the degree of association among the accessions
Cluster analysis based on similarity matrices (CLA)
Summary
Sweet potato is the world’s seventh most important food crop after wheat, rice, maize, potato, barley and cassava, and second most important tuber crop after cassava with a yearly production of 106 million tonnes (FAOSTATs, 2010; Loebenstein, 2009; Hijmans et al, 2001). It is widely adapted in the tropics, sub-tropical and warm temperate regions and is propagated in both high and low input agricultural systems (Kapinga et al, 1995).
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