Morphological Variation in Selected Accessions of Bambara Groundnut (Vigna subterranea L. Verdc) in South Africa

Amara Evangeline Unigwe,Patrick Adebola,Michael Pillay,Abe Shegro Gerrano

doi:10.5539/jas.v8n11p69

Abstract

<p>Bambara groundnut (<em>Vigna subterranea </em>L. Verdc) is an underutilized crop in the African continent. It is a drought tolerant crop and fixes atmospheric nitrogen. Bambara groundnut is primarily grown for the protein content of its seeds and is mainly produced by small scale farmers at subsistence level. The objective of the study was to assess the morphological variation of landraces of bambara groundnut in South Africa. Thirty accessions of bambara groundnut were evaluated for their variability in agronomic and morphological traits. The field experiment was conducted at ARC-VOPI in Roodeplaat research farm during the 2014/2015 summer cropping season. The field trial was arranged as a complete randomized block design with three replications. Eighteen quantitative traits were recorded to estimate the level of genetic variability among accessions. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the phenotypic traits evaluated. The UPGMA cluster analysis based on the quantitative traits produced four distinct groups of genotypes and a singleton. Genotypes SB11-1A, SB19-1A, SB12-3B and Bambara-12 were found to possess good vegetative characters and are recommended for use as suitable parents when breeding cultivars for fodder production. Desirable yield and yield-related traits were identified in B7-1, SB4-4C, SB19-1A, Bambara-12 and SB16-5A and are recommended as suitable parental lines for bambara groundnut grain production improvement. The phenotypic characters therefore provide a useful measure of genetic variability among bambara genotypes and will enable the identification of potential parental materials for future breeding programs in South Africa.</p>

Highlights

IntroductionVerdc) is an indigenous African legume primarily grown for its seeds
The results of this study showed that there was wide genetic variability among the bambara groundnut evaluated for 18 morphological quantitative characters recorded
Characterization and evaluation of bambara groundnut germplasm and identification of the best parents is important for improvement of the crop

Summary

Introduction

Verdc) is an indigenous African legume primarily grown for its seeds. It is becoming increasingly popular as a food crop in rural areas of many countries in Africa (Vurayai et al, 2011). Bambara groundnut has been ranked as the third most important grain legume after groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) (Howell et al, 1994) in Africa. Bambara groundnut is essentially grown for human consumption and has been described as a complete balanced diet due to the high carbohydrate (65%) and protein (18%) content of its seed (Ouedraogo et al, 2008). The protein content of bambara groundnut is high in lysine (Massawe et al, 2005)

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