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Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is an important resource to the national economy and it is essential to assess the genetic diversity in existing sorghum germplasm for better conservation, utilization and crop improvement. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of genetic diversity within and among sorghum germplasms collected from diverse institutes in Nigeria and Mali using Single Nucleotide Polymorphic markers. Genetic diversity among the germplasm was low with an average polymorphism information content value of 0.24. Analysis of Molecular Variation revealed 6% variation among germplasm and 94% within germplasms. Dendrogram revealed three groups of clustering which indicate variations within the germplasms. Private alleles identified in the sorghum accessions from National Center for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology, Ibadan, Nigeria and International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Kano, Nigeria shows their prospect for sorghum improvement and discovery of new agronomic traits. The presence of private alleles and genetic variation within the germplasms indicates that the accessions are valuable resources for future breeding programs.

Genotype by environment interactions and phenotypic stability analysis for yield and yield components in parental lines of pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum [L.] R. Br)Twenty-four parental lines of pearl millet and a seed parent (ZATIB) as check were evaluated in five different locations in northern Nigeria to determine their yield levels and stability across the environments. Identification of stable parental line(s) will improve the performance of resulting pearl millet hybrids. Location and genotype effects were highly significant (P<0.05) for all the parameters sampled while interaction between locations and genotypes were significant (P<0.05) for stand count, days to 50% flowering, downy mildew score, panicle length and grain yield (kg ha -1 ). Estimates of environmental index showed that Samaru was the best performing environment while Bagauda and Panda were the poorest grain yielding environments. Most of the lines were adapted to high rainfall environment of Samaru while others showed specific adaptation to low rainfall locations; indicating the possibility of developing specific lines adapted to low and high rainfall areas. Mean grain yield ranged from 504.8 (kg ha -1 ) for G3 (20A-2) to 1920 (kg ha -1 ) for G24 (75B-3). G10, G14 and G15 were found suitable for favorable conditions with predictable performance as they gave high mean grain yield along with above average responsiveness (bi>1) and non-significant deviation from regression line while G13, G17 and G18 were considered suitable for poor environments. Regression coefficient and deviation from regression indicated that G23 and G24 (75A-3 and 75B-3) and ZATIB were most stable in performance across the test environments.

The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change Project set out to improve the diversity, quantity, and accessibility of germplasm collections of crop wild relatives (CWR). Between 2013 and 2018, partners in 25 countries, heirs to the globetrotting legacy of Nikolai Vavilov, undertook seed collecting expeditions targeting CWR of 28 crops of global significance for agriculture. Here, we describe the implementation of the 25 national collecting programs and present the key results. A total of 4587 unique seed samples from at least 355 CWR taxa were collected, conserved ex situ, safety duplicated in national and international genebanks, and made available through the Multilateral System (MLS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty). Collections of CWR were made for all 28 targeted crops. Potato and eggplant were the most collected genepools, although the greatest number of primary genepool collections were made for rice. Overall, alfalfa, Bambara groundnut, grass pea and wheat were the genepools for which targets were best achieved. Several of the newly collected samples have already been used in pre-breeding programs to adapt crops to future challenges.

Twenty four parental lines of pearl millet A/B pairs developed jointly by Lake Chad Research Institute (LCRI), Maiduguri and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Kano during 1997 to 1999 were evaluated along with a seed parent (ZATIB) across five locations to determine yield and yield component relationships, heritability estimates as well as genetic advance. Correlation coefficient analysis showed that stand count (r=0.249), plant height (r=0.435) and head weight (r=0.958) significantly (p<0.05) and positively correlated with grain yield while days to 50% flowering significantly but negatively correlated (r=-0.539) with grain yield. There were negative but none significant correlation between grain yield with downy mildew score (r=-0.100) and Striga count (r=-0.095) while downy mildew score and Striga count negatively correlated with stand count (r=-0.155 and r=-0.065 respectively). Head weight has high positive and significant environmental, genotypic and phenotypic correlation coefficient with grain yield (r e =0.920; r g =0.900 and r p =0.980). Positive and significant genotypic and phenotypic correlation coefficient exists between plant height and grain yield (r g =0.593 and r p =0.417). Path coefficient analysis indicated that stand count had strong positive direct effect (0.970) on grain yield followed by plant height (0.953). Head weight expressed high negative direct effect (-0.846) on grain yield. The parental lines under study showed high to moderate broad-sense heritability; with panicle length expressing the highest heritability (78.95%), followed by grain yield (75.43%) and head weight (73.30%). The rest characters expressed moderate heritability values. Panicle length and head weight displayed high heritability and high genetic advance indicating that the two traits might be controlled by additive gene effects. This suggests that selection in the segregating generation may be effective. Phenotypic correlation approximates genotypic correlation coefficient in this study, indicating that the influence of environment may be probably minimal and traits with high predictive values can be selected early in the breeding program as against traits with low predictive values.

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A hybridization programme that potentially exploits the variability existing in the wild African germplasm of V. unguiculata and cultivated cowpea was performed. Four cultivated cowpea (Achi shuru, Ife Brown, Kanannado and Zebra bean) were crossed to their wild relative subsp. unguiculata var. spontanea to ascertain their cross compatibility, reproductive potential and possible heterosis in the F1 generations. Results show that the cultivated varieties hybridized relatively well with their wild relative with pod set of 40.8% to 46.7%. F1 hybrid plants also showed high heterosis in plant height and number of leaves and produced viable seeds. These results are indications of a good reproductive potential of the hybrids suggesting that the wild relative could be used in hybridization programmes for improvement of cultivated populations.

TGX1987-10F) developed at National Cereals Research (NCRI) in collaboration with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the result showed wide significant variations in the proximate and mineral contents. TGX1987-62F recorded the highest dry matter content of 98.34% while TGX 923-2E gave the highest moisture content (6.12%). Highest values for Crude ash (5.02%) and crude fibre (6.12%) were recorded for TGX1951-3F. NGB00116 had the significantly highest protein content of 41.92% and an appreciable oil content of 27.65%. Protein content was also high for TGX1987-10F (41.33%) and NG/MR/11/11/060 (41.31%). TGX1989-19F had the highest oil content of 30.45% and energy value (496.37Kcal/g). NGB00113 had the highest carbohydrate content of 52.74%. K. Na, Ca, Mg and P were highest in NG/SA/JAN/09/48 (1.99%), NGB00116 (0.57%), TGX1485-1D (1.60%) TGX1951-3F (0.84%) and NGB00113 (0.85%) respectively. The study provides valuable information on soybean genotypes with very high protein and oil content for recommendation to farmers and other end users and for breeders to select and utilize in soybean quality improvement programmes.