In sub-Saharan Africa, soil degradation and recurrent droughts are major obstacles to a sustainable agriculture. This study aimed at investigating the effect of compost addition to soil on proline content and activities of the antioxidant enzymes [catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX)] in maize plants, under drought stress conditions. The test was carried out in 20L plastic pots containing either sandy soil or sandy soil with the fertilizer, under natural conditions. The water deficit was induced at male blooming and milky grain stages. Plant irrigation was done by successive weighing of the pots during which the control is reduced to the same weight corresponding to 70% of the useful water reserve (UWR), while the stressed treatment maintains the water content at 30% of the UWR for 10 days. At the end of the stress period, the proline content, the CAT and APX activities in the leaves were determined through a spectrophotometry. The results show an important accumulation of proline and increase in enzymatic activity induced by water deficit in plants grown on compost (p = 0.00000 at p < 0.05). This study provides evidence for a beneficial effect of compost application in enhancing drought tolerance of maize.Keywords: Drought stress; compost; proline; antioxidant enzymes; Zea mays L.
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 new cocoyam are root and leaf crops commonly grown in tropical to warm temperate regions. In Togo, they are neglected and underutilised. Here we report the genetic diversity of 26 accessions of taro and 101 accessions of new cocoyam. Analysis of simple sequence repeats revealed low polymorphic information content of 0.43 and 0.25 in taro and new cocoyam, respectively. PCA scatterplots and Neighbour Joining dendrograms based on the SSR data clustered accessions into groups that more-or-less correspond to morphological diversity in both species. AMOVA within and between morphological groups revealed greater variances within groups than between. This indicates weak genetic differentiation between morphological groups, particularly for taro. Genetic diversity was greater among taro cultivars. Taro has a longer history of introduction and dispersal in Africa, and has had more opportunity for multiple introduction and local cultivar development. Different strategies are suggested for future development of these crops in Togo and Africa. For taro, further studies of existing diversity and recent experimental introduction, has spread widely in Africa with little genetic diversity. For this crop, international collaboration is needed to clarify taxonomy, and to introduced further cultivars for evaluation under local conditions in Africa.
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