AGROMORPHOLOGICAL DIVERSITY OF LOCAL CASSAVA (MANIHOT ESCULENTA CRANTZ) ACCESSIONS CULTIVATED IN THE SOUTH OF CÔTE D’IVOIRE

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is an important food source in Côte d’Ivoire and it contributes to food security. Nonetheless, its production is facing many constraints including the abandonment of landraces. With a view to preserving genetic diversity for crop improvement, 47 cassava accessions were collected in the Southern region of Côte d’Ivoire and evaluated agromorphologically on the basis of eight quantitative traits. Based on ANOVA (Analysis of Variance), high variability was shown within the accessions for the traits evaluated. The principal component analysis (PCA) applied to the 47 accessions confirmed this variability of 75.04% revealed by the first three axis. The ascending hierarchical clustering (AHC) placed the accessions into 3 groups based on the height of the plant, the length of the petiole and the number of tuberous roots per plant. Group 1 includes accessions with large plants (HPL = 305.57cm), average number of roots per plant (NTP = 6.31) and long petiole (LPE = 24.84cm). Group 2 is composed of small-sized accessions (HPL = 260 cm) with a low number of roots per plant (NTP = 4.17) and short petioles (17.07 cm). Group 3 contains accessions of intermediate size (HPL = 294 cm) with a high number of roots per plant (NTP= 7.68) and petioles of medium length (LPE = 18.45 cm). The Agromorphological variability observed in the study offers a great possibility of choosing elite accessions for the breeding of improved varieties of cassava with high potential yield and adapted to different agroclimatic zones of Côte d’Ivoire. Also, this study showed that some accessions with the same names are phenotypically different. The conservation of these accessions in collections will make it possible to fight against the erosion of these genetic resources.