Taro (Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) and tannia (new cocoyam) (Xanthosoma mafaffa L. Schott) are food crops cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In cultivation, they are always vegetatively propagated and their production faces many constraints. Their corm is an important source of carbohydrates and leaves eaten as vegetable provide important minerals and vitamins. In Togo, although these crops are among the most important food crops in some rural areas, they appear at the country level as neglected and underutilized species (NUS) and should be promoted. However, adequate information related to production, constraints, farmers' preferred traits and utilisation is lacking for the development of efficient breeding schemes and their sustainable preservation and use in Togo. In this paper, a focus group survey was conducted in all five ecological zones of the country to document farmers' perceptions regarding constraints for production of these two crops and their preferred traits for production and utilization. Collected data were analysed through descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages and means) using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS 20) and Excel spreadsheets. Rainfall irregularity (or shortage of rainy seasons) (68.4% of responses), soil infertility (61.5% of responses) and inefficient marketing (58.7% of responses) were the most common production constraints reported. Farmers preferred early-maturity (73% of responses) and high-yield (65% of responses) as crop traits. Men are more involved in production of these crops in Togo (79% of respondents). However, the constraints and preferences reported were not gender dependent. This study showed that production of taro and tania faces many challenges in Togo. Morphological and molecular characterization of grown varieties is highly recommended to help select suitable varieties for breeding programmes. Improvements in food processing and accessibility of credit should be prioritized to generate more income for farmers and encourage production in Togo.
Taro and yautia are two edible aroids grown in the humid tropics of Asia, Africa and Latin America and used as staple food crops by millions of people in developing countries. They are mainly propagated vegetatively. Selection and improvement of these crops require characterization using desirable morphological traits for various end-uses. An agro morphological characterization study was conducted at the experimental site of Centre de Recherche Agronomique du Littoral (CRAL) of Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique (ITRA) in Togo. The aim of the study was to evaluate the morphological variation within taro and yautia accessions. A total of 127 accessions (26 accessions of taro and 101 accessions of yautia) were grown in a randomized complete block design with three replications from October 2016 to November 2017. Thirty-eight (38) characters were studied for taro and twenty-eight (28) for yautia. Data was analyzed using ANOVA, factorial and clustering analyses. Findings of ANOVA show high positive correlations between vegetative traits such as plant height, plant span with corm and cormels weight. The factorial analysis and dendrogram of the HCA, based on the agro morphological traits, showed four major groups for taro accessions and three groups for yautia accessions. The results demonstrated morphological variation among taro and yautia grown in Togo. Findings from this study are an important data base for conservation and use of these crops in Togo. However, the results suggest also the existence of duplicate in the collection. Ploidy analysis and molecular studies are required to complement and confirm the current agro morphological variation.
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