Amendment of nursery soil with nutrient-containing compounds could promote seedling development. The utility of coffee husk and the optimum quantity needed in sole or combination with NPK for enhanced cashew seedling development was investigated. Medium size cashew nuts were raised for 20 weeks in six nutritional treatments. There were three coffee husk application rates (0.0021 g

African yam bean, AYB (Sphenostylis stenocarpa Hochst. ex. A. Rich Harms), is a tuberous legume of tropical Africa. AYB has the potential to significantly boost food security due to its considerable nutritional qualities. However, the crop is underutilized. To efficiently utilize AYB genetic resources for its improvement, it is necessary to understand the crop's diversity. This study investigated the amplification ability of 36 cowpea simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers across AYB genomic DNA, extracted from 67 accessions. Thirteen (36%) of the cowpea SSRs showed transferability in AYB. Eight of these SSRs amplified above 60% of AYB accessions and generated 55 polymorphic fragments with an average of 6.9 per primer. Polymorphic information content ranged from 0.6691 to 0.8857 with an average of 0.7791. This study also assessed the genetic diversity within 67 AYB accessions using eight cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp)-derived SSR primers. The result revealed a high level of genetic diversity with simple matching coefficient ranging from 0.458 to 1.000. A dendrogram depicting three main clusters was generated based on unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average. Cluster 1 was the most diverse with a dissimilarity range of 0.517–1.000. The level of genetic diversity revealed in this study indicates that the studied AYB germplasm can be exploited for genetic improvement. Additionally, the transferable markers will aid AYB genome research and also make possible the comparative mapping between AYB and cowpea.

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Good seedling establishment has a positive impact on the productive capacity of tree crops. This study investigated the optimum combination of phosphorus and organic fertilizer (OF) for the growth of cashew seedling at the pre-flowering stage. Two cashew accessions of the same nut size category from two geographical sources (Ochaja and Oro, Kogi State of Nigeria) were evaluated to assess their responses to three types of phosphate fertilizer and three levels of OF. The eighteen treatment combinations were laid out in a randomized complete block design of three replicates. Two years monitoring of the growth of the cashew accessions resulted in significant (P ≤ 0.05) genotypic variation for most of the traits at quarterly intervals of measurement. Significant (P ≤ 0.05) variation existed among the three levels of OF at different stages of plant height, stem diameter and leaf area. Broad sense heritability was not consistent across the six quarters of the three growth parameters. It ranged from 0.16% (SDQ5) to 95.6% (HTQ1). The trend of growth of the stem diameter from quarter 1 to 6 was linear for the two accessions. However, the response of the same trait to the three levels of OF was negatively quadratic. The first two initial years of cashew development on the field falls within the actively growing period of the crop. This justifies the linear behaviour of the three quantitative growth parameters investigated, application of OF at 2.5 tonnes/ha could be optimum for young cashew.

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Neglected and underutilized plant genetic resources constitute opportunity for diversification of food and environmental services globally, particularly within communities in developing country. They can provide, in some cases, higher nutrient content than traditional globally accepted staples commonly consumed. Currently, with climate uncertainty and the desire and challenge for sustainably produced food, there is an urgent need to promote crop diversity. Benefits are also likely to come from the greater resilience to environmental stress and the lower resource demand associated with growing these neglected crops. This study aims at quantifying the nutritional variety in 34 accessions of Sphenostylis stenocarpa (African yam bean) sourced from farmers, marketers and consumers for food and nutrient security. The accessions were evaluated for variability in their nutritional components based on proximate and vitamin values using Multidimensional Analysis (MDA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. Highly diversity were observed among these accessions in most of the traits measured. The MDA analysis showed that accessions AB2, AB4, AB3, EB5, AB1 and EB6 ranked 1st to 6th, respectively. The PCA revealed that PCA 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 loaded the most significant variables which contributed more in discriminating the accessions examined. PC1 and PC3 gave the maximum variability for two traits each while PC2, PC4 and PC5 loaded 1 each. The cluster analysis highlighted three distinct clads. Group I clades with 19 accessions, group II, with 3 accessions and group III clustered 12 accessions. MDA and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were highly concordant. They serve as robust tools for enhancing breeding program for genetic improvement and germplasm conservation.

The many reported inherent nutritional potential in African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa (Hochst. Ex. A. Rich.) Harms) seem to provide platform for the need of its genetic improvement. A good understanding of the breeding system of the crop species is a needed criterion in plant breeding program. Four accessions of African yam bean (AYB) collected from the Genetic Resources Centre of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria were grown out in a fifteen plants/accession row on a field at IITA, Ibadan (7.5°N, 3.9°E), Nigeria. Five pollination mechanisms were investigated as treatments on the four accessions. The four accessions set fruits and seeds in four treatments: plants left to open-pollination (A), plants isolated with fine net mesh (B), artificially selfed flowers (C) and inter-varietal cross-pollination (D). Emasculated flowers which were not pollinated (treatment E) produced neither fruit nor seed. Treatment A differed significantly (P<0.05) from B, likewise C and D. Fruit set percentage was higher in A (19.7-21.2) than B (18.3–18.7). Higher pollination/fertilization success (46.5%) was obtained in C compared to 32.3% in D. More seeds (88.6%) were set by self-pollination. The four accessions had a mean selfing rate of 89.8% and an outcrossing rate of 10.17%. The observed 1:9 allogamy: autogamy in this study could form the basis for developing the breeding strategy for the genetic improvement of AYB via hybridization.

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