Article Sidebar
Published:
Apr 30, 2021Keywords:
Article Details
NAJ supports free online communication and exchange of knowledge as the most effective way of ensuring that the fruits of research and development practice are made widely available. It is therefore committed to open access, which, for authors, enables the widest possible dissemination of their findings and, for readers, increases their ability to discover pertinent information. The Journal adopts and uses the CC: BY license and is open access. This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the Journal’s published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Copyright for articles published in this Journal is retained by the Journal.
Main Article Content
Characterization of coconut accessions from selected germplasm using morphological traits
Abstract
Characterization is fundamental for successful plant breeding programme. Genetic diversity among the selected coconut accessions had not been studied. Hence, this study characterized and identified outstanding coconut accessions. Tall coconut accessions from four germplasm collections; Badagry (BT), South East (ST), Kwara (KT1) and Kogi (KT2) were investigated in the NIFOR substation Badagry, using morphological traits. Percentage of fruit yield components, principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis of morphological traits were evaluated. Coconut water volume (161cm3) and fresh meat weight (0.32kg) was highest in the BT accessions, while coconut water was lowest (92 cm3) in the ST accessions. KT2 accessions had higher husk weight (0.66kg) which was significantly different from other accessions. PCA indicated that three PC axes explained 80.52% of the total variations among the accessions. The fruit traits accounted for 52.84%, while the vegetative traits accounted for 21.58%. This indicated high variability in the fruit traits than in the vegetative traits. High values of Eigen vector were posed by split nut weight (0.973), nut weight (0.972), nut circumference (0.931), fresh meat weight (0.927), water volume (0.872), shell weight (0.841), nut length (0.857), copra weight (0.812), fruit circumference (0.804) and fruit weight (0.662). Cluster analysis partitioned the accessions into four main clusters. The grouping of the accessions did not follow a particular pattern. Cluster III had members from two locations, while the other clusters had members across the locations. Cluster III had the highest fruit weight, fruit length, fruit circumference, nut weight, nut length, nut circumference, split nut weight and coconut juice than the other clusters, while clusters II which had the highest sugar level. The accessions studied had high genetic variability for selection and breeding purposes which can be exploited to produce hybrid coconut.
