Diversity of cassava Emphasis Type="Italic"Mani

Authors: G R Kombo A Dansi L Y Loko G C Orkwor R Vodouhè P Assogba J M Magema

Publish Date: 2012/02/12

Volume: 59, Issue: 8, Pages: 1789-1803

PDF Link

Abstract

Cassava Manihot esculenta Crantz is one of the most produced and consumed food crops in the Republic of Congo To assess the diversity and understand the traditional management of its cultivars in the department of Bouenza twentyone villages randomly selected from nine ethnic zones were surveyed using participatory rural appraisal Altogether 86 land races cultivars were recorded and further grouped into 36 types based on their agronomic and culinary characteristics The number of cultivars accessed varied from 6 to 21 per village 13 on average and from 1 to 11 4 on average per household Their distribution and extent analysis revealed some worrying rates of cultivar loss in the range of 741–6667 3206 on average per village The reasons of cultivars abandonment the folk nomenclature and the traditional cutting supply system and planting techniques were documented and their importance in terms of genetic resources conservation and utilisation are discussed Twenty farmers’ cultivar preference criteria were identified and prioritised Their relative importances were examined across ethnic groups Among them the most important were yield taste cossette quality and root size which account for 7239 of the total responses The study revealed that most of the farmers did not consider the importance of the sexual reproduction in the cultivar diversification and the impact of cassava mosaic disease on the productivity of the infested plants Awareness efforts and extension of the study to other cassava production zones were recommended for food security needs in Congo To clarify synonym morphological classification and molecular analysis were also suggestedThis study was supported by WECARD West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development through an MSc fellowship given to the first author We gratefully acknowledge the valuable technical assistance of the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research DGRST the Centre de Recherches Agronomiques de Loudima CRAL and of the leaders of the different agricultural services of the department of Bouenza during the entire study We are particularly indebted to Dr Simon C Eze University of Nigeria Nsukka and to the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their suggestions and constructive criticisms We express our sincere thanks to Mr Emile O Edea University of AbomeyCalavi Benin for the mapping and to all the farmers we met and interviewed during the surveys

Keywords: