Abstract
Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam) is an important root crop in Malawi and Sub-Saharan Africa where micronutrient deficiency is an eminent health problem. Using 15 sweet potato genotypes grown in a randomized complete block design at Bvumbwe Research Station, a study was undertaken to determine the extent of variability of selected micronutrients in the genotypes as influenced by storage root age and peeling. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant (p≤ 0.01) variability among genotypes for dry mater, β-carotene, ascorbic acid levels and reduction of β-carotene due to peeling across all ages. Significant (p ≤ 0.05) variations in zinc, iron and copper were also observed among all genotypes. Peeling reduced β-carotene, ascorbic acid levels, iron, zinc and copper content while late harvesting resulted in low iron, zinc and copper. Therefore, 5 months after planting (MAP) and 4 MAP are recommended for high levels of β-carotene and ascorbic acid and iron, zinc and copper, respectively. Ten genotypes exhibited acceptable levels of dry mater of ≥30%. Zondeni (10.9 mg/100 g, WW) and Babache (23.84 mg/100 g, WW) had highest levels of β-carotene and ascorbic acid, respectively. Mzungu displayed the highest levels of Iron (0.67 mg/100 g, DW) and zinc (0.63 mg/100 g, DW) while Yoyera (0.61 mg/100 g, DW) had the highest levels of copper. Variations of various traits entail potential to breed for higher levels of micronutrients. Key words: Sweet potato, genotypes, β-carotene, ascorbic acid, iron, zinc, copper, peeling, storage root age.
Highlights
One billion (795 million) people from developing countries suffer from hunger, malnutrition and poverty (FAO, 2015)
Determination of dry matter is important since % DM is among key component traits that contribute to total root yield (TRY), others being large root yield (LRY), number of large root per plant (NLR/P), root dry matter yield (RDMY) and harvest index (HI) (Amoatey et al, 2016)
Iron content from all genotypes at average months after planting (MAP) (0.12 mg/100 g) observed in this study is lower than what Sanoussi et al (2016) (0.63 mg/100 g), Bradbury and Holloway (1988) (0.93 mg/100 g) and Laurie et al (2012) (0.995 mg/100 g) reported in Benin, Australia and South Africa, respectively
Summary
One billion (795 million) people from developing countries suffer from hunger, malnutrition and poverty (FAO, 2015). The UN population projection shows that the trend will continue until the end of this century when the global population will reach 10.8 billion or more (UN DESA, 2015) Such increases in global population will result in ever increasing number of food in-secure people, who by definition are people with no physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs at all times (FAO, 1996). Monotonous diets which are a hallmark of Sub-Saharan countries, based on cereals and other starchy staple foods frequently fail to deliver sufficient quantities of essential minerals and vitamins like Iodine, Iron, Zinc and Vitamin A (Demment et al, 2003). Such diets predisposed communities to micronutrient deficiencies resulting in micronutrient malnutrition (FAO/WHO, 2002). In the SubSaharan Africa (SSA), the crop is farmed on more than 3 million hectares with estimated yield of 13 million tons annually (Low and Van Jaarsveld, 2008)
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