Ghana is endowed with a lot of indigenous leaf and fruit vegetables which are nutritious and are used in the treatment of many ailments. However, current changes in food habits in both rural and urban households have led to overdependence on energyrich but nutrient poor staple crops. Most of these nonindigenous staple crops are not adapted to local conditions in Ghana as compared to indigenous vegetables making their production and consumption expensive and therefore worsening malnutrition and food insecurity issues. To promote consumption of indigenous vegetables and conservation of their genetic resources in Ghana, proximate, mineral and vitamins composition and medicinal properties of five indigenous leaf (Amaranthus cruentus, Corchorus olitorius, Solanum macrocarpon, Xanthosoma sagittifolium, Adasonia digitata) and three fruit vegetables (Solanum torvum, Solanum aethiopicum, Solanum macrocarpon) vegetables were evaluated using recommended methodologies. Proximate, mineral and vitamins composition varied significantly among the species analyzed. Nutritional composition of indigenous leaf and fruit vegetables were compared with that of exotic vegetables and significant differences were noted. In general, proteins, carbohydrates, dietary fibers, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Vitamin E were significantly higher in indigenous vegetables than their exotic counterparts. The results highlight nutritional importance of indigenous vegetables and the need to promote their consumption and safeguard their genetic resources. For further promotion, some urgent research directions are suggested.

Availability of multiple-stress tolerant maize is critical for improvement in maize production in West and Central Africa (WCA). A study was carried out to (i) assess a set of inbred lines for combining ability under stressed and optimal conditions, (ii) determine the performance of the testcrosses under different conditions, and (iii) identify outstanding hybrids across the conditions. Two hundred and five testcrosses were planted with five hybrid checks under Striga-infested, low soil nitrogen, drought and optimal conditions between 2015 and 2016 in Nigeria. The grain yield inheritance under optimal condition was largely regulated by additive gene effect whereas non-additive gene effects largely regulated grain yield under the three stresses. Four of the inbreds had significant positive general combining ability effects each under low N and drought, and three under Striga infestation for grain yield. The inbreds could be vital sources of beneficial alleles for development and improvement of tropical yellow maize hybrids and populations. Hybrids TZEI 443 x ENT 13 and TZEI 462 x TZEI 10 were high yielding and stable; they out-performed the three early maturing released hybrids in WCA. The new hybrids should be extensively assessed and released in the sub-region to improve food security.

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The miracle plant Synsepalum dulcificum is a multipurpose natural sweetener and a promising West African orphan fruit shrub candidate for genetic improvement. Unfortunately, basic knowledge such as phenotypic variation and inheritance estimates required for implementing a breeding program are still lacking. A set of 203 accessions were sampled in two habitats from seven populations spread across the Dahomey Gap (DG) and the Upper Guinea forest (UG) in West Africa. The phenotypic diversity and allometric relationships among functional traits were analysed; the broad-sense heritability was estimated for fruit-traits, and a mini-core collection was developed in the species. Quantitative variation in tree- and fruit-traits was recorded, and multivariate analyses were performed to assess relationships among accessions, whereas heritability was estimated using the coefficient of repeatability. Tree-traits observed in S. dulcificum were more variable than fruit-traits. While habitat-type only affected tree-traits, the provenance population significantly affected both fruit- and tree-traits, with the UG populations outperforming the DG ones. Significant correlations were observed among fruit-traits on one hand, and among tree-traits on the other hand, whereas poor correlations were observed between tree- and fruit-traits. The multivariate analysis grouped accessions in three clusters. Promising individuals for high fruit mass and pulp-dense genotypes’ selection were identified within clusters. Repeatability estimates for fruit-traits ranged from 0.015 (edible ratio) to 0.88 (fruit mass). The Core Hunter algorithm enabled the extraction of 41 individuals as robust representatives of the initial set of 203 accessions, and the mapping of this core collection suggested Dahomey Gap as a centre of diversity of the species. These original findings offer opportunities, not only for the genetic improvement of S. dulcificum, but also for targeted ex-situ conservation in the species.