Ulasi, J. Ifeanyi 1 *, Gamaliel I. Harry 1 and Keyagha E. Rosemary 2
1 Department
of Crop Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Uyo, P. M. B. 1017, Uyo, Akwa, Ibom State, Nigeria.
of Crop Science and Technology, Federal University of Technology, P. M. B. 1526,
Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria.
2 Department
Received 13th September, 2021; Accepted 6th February, 2022
ABSTRACT: Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) genotypes frequently exhibits extensive variations in terms of its morphological characteristics.
A field experiment was carried out at National Root Crops Research Institute, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria during 2015 and 2016 cropping seasons, to characterize sweet potato genotypes for morphological diversity. Three different sweet potato families (Sauti X 442162, Sauti X Ligri, Sauti Poly Cross), including two local checks (Umuspo3 and TIS87/8700) were selected for the experiment. This experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replicates. The sweet potato genotypes were evaluated on nineteen characters covering both folial and storage root morphology using morphology descriptor and data collected were subjected to analysis of variance to determine variation among agronomic and measured morphological parameters. Cluster analysis was done on all the nineteen characters, based on Euclidean distance and similarity matrix and a dendrogram generated using the ward’s method.
Most of the genotypes had pink skin colour and creamy flesh colour. Cluster analysis revealed that all the genotypes were grouped into 4 different classes based on their morphological traits. The analysis of variance showed a significant (p≤0.05) difference among the sweet potato genotypes in most of traits observed. This study revealed that yields of total storage roots ranged from 2.07 to 14.96 t/ha. Sauti X 440163/5 recorded the highest total storage root yield of 14.96 t/ha among the genotypes while Sauti X 440163/6 recorded the lowest total storage roots yield of 2.07 t/ha.
The results of this study revealed that Sauti X 440163/5 is suitable for cultivation in the environment and could be incorporated into further breeding programs as this would provide a large gene pool for effective recombination to raise promising sweet
potato variety of considerable agricultural importance.
Keywords: Diversity, morphological characters phenotypic characterization, sweet potato.