Screening of local cassava germplasm for domestic and industrial purposes

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted at the University of Ghana Farm, Legon and Plant Genetic Resources Research Institute (Bunso). The first experiment was carried out at Legon from March, 2002 to October, 2003 to evaluate ll cassava accessions. The criteria used for the evaluation were (a) tolerance to whitefly infestation and African Cassava Mosaic Virus (ACMV) disease infection (b) root tuber yield and starch yield characteristics. Based on the performance of accessions in Experiment I, seven superior cassava accessions and one check variety were selected for further evaluation in Experiment II. Experiment II was conducted between October, 2003 and January, 2005 at two a'gra-ecological zones, that is, the Coastal Savanna (Legon) and Deciduous Forest (Bunso) to identify and select elite accessions with desirable agronomic traits and root tubers with high starch content. Three accessions, namely: 'UG126', 'H0015' and 'H0008' were observed to rank highest with respect to root tuber weight and other desirable production traits. Accessions 'UG126', 'DMA030' and 'H0008' were identified as genotypes with high quality starch suitable for industrial purposes based on low solubility, high swelling volume, swelling power and high peak viscosity. For domestic purposes, for example, the preparation of 'fu fu' and 'banku', 'UCC 90', 'UG126', 'H0008' and 'DMA 030' can be used based on high setback viscosities of their starches. It is suggested that fuliher field evaluations of the cassava genotypes be made over a longer period of time so that genotype x location x year interactions can be further studied.