Untitled

Abstract

Pod and grain yield in legumes is a function of the quantity of flowers on the field. The present study explored flower and pod productivity potentials of 15 African yam bean (AYB) accessions to provide insight into their intra-specific grain yield potentials. The 15 accessions were evaluated in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replicates at the Teaching and Research Farm, Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), Ikole-Ekiti Campus, Nigeria. Data were collected on: number of flowers/peduncle (NOFP), number of filled pods/peduncle (NOFPP), number of unfilled pod/peduncle (NOUPP), number of pods/plant (NOPP) and pod weight/plant (PWP). Data were subjected to analysis of variance and genetic estimates were estimated from the variance components. Pearson correlation coefficient analysis was done using means of the data and ratios of flower to pod were estimated for each accession. Significant (≤0.001) variation existed among the 15 accessions for the five traits. Average NOFP, NOFPP, NOUPP, NOPP and PWP from the 15 accessions were 14.51, 2.06, 0.97, 32.36 and 174.44g respectively. DSs4B and DSs4C had above average NOFP, NOPP and PWP with NOUPP less than the average while TSs69A and DSs4A had above average for the five traits. NOPP had the highest (91.32%) broad-sense heritability. Mean proportion of pod to flower in this study was 21%, seven accessions had above this average, the highest (29%) occurred in DSs4A. African yam bean accessions had different flower-pod ratio efficiencies and pod productivity potential. This study unfolds a platform for pod productivity selection in AYB.