Differences in Manioc Diversity Among Five Ethnic Groups of the Colombian Amazon

Abstract

Abstract:Manioc is an important root crop in the tropics and the most important staple food in the Amazon. Manioc is diverse but its diversity has not yet been clearly associated with environmental or social factors. Our study evaluates how variation in edaphic environments and in social factors influences manioc diversity among five ethnic groups of the Amazon region of Colombia. Inventories of landraces, genetic analysis of manioc diversity, visits to farmers' swiddens and interviews with farmers were carried out during two years of field work. Morphotypic and genotypic diversity of manioc were large. The different ethnic groups of our study cultivate different sweet and bitter manioc landraces which they select and maintain in accordance with their ancestral rules and norms. Differences in available environments among indigenous communities (such as the presence of different soils) did not markedly affect manioc morphotypic or genotypic diversity, while social factors considerably influenced observed manioc diversity. Manioc diversity was explained by two parallel processes of manioc diversification: volunteer seedling selection and manioc seed OPEN ACCESS Diversity 2014, 6 793 exchange. We argue that, for a full understanding of manioc diversity, indigenous knowledge, as well as morphological and genetic variation should be taken into account.

Diversity of Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) Cultivars in the Traditional Agriculture of Togo

“…Also, the use of non-toxic or toxic cultivars was directly associated to ethnic groups. The composition of manioc inventories of each community therefore, also reflects the culinary traditions of each ethnic group (Peña-Venegas et al, 2014). The lowest diversity was recorded in Ahlon's ethnic group.…”

Challenging Current Knowledge on Amazonian Dark Earths: Indigenous Manioc Cultivation on Different Soils of the Colombian Amazon

“…Within tierra firme, farmers distinguish the arenas negras or ADE as a more‐or‐less specific subcategory of non‐flooding soils (Peña‐Venegas et al. ). For this study, ADE was considered a specific type of soil due to its anthropic origin.…”

“…Most tierra firme (uplands) has low-fertility soils with elevated plateaus between 200 and 300 m.a.s.l with slopes between 7 and 25 percent, and superficial sedimentary soils originating from the erosion of parental materials during the Paleozoic period (IGAC 1979). Within tierra firme, farmers distinguish the arenas negras or ADE as a more-or-less specific subcategory of non-flooding soils (Peña-Venegas et al 2014a). For this study, ADE was considered a specific type of soil due to its anthropic origin.…”

Household Determinants of the Adoption of Improved Cassava Varieties using DNA Fingerprinting to Identify Varieties in Farmer Fields: A Case Study in Colombia

“…This array was successfully used for the first time in the molecular characterisation of 173 Amazonia landraces from Colombia (Peña-Venegas et al, 2014). This study had a substantial initial cost to develop the RAD-seq library, SNPY-chip, and the initial DNA sequencing, around US $250,000 while the cost of DNA analysis for each sample from Cauca is between US $25-30.…”

“…The disrupted tissues were incubated at 65°C for 1 hour followed by one organic extraction using chloroform-isoamyl alcohol (24:1); mixing gently but thoroughly for 30 minutes at 0°C. The DNA resulting from this extraction was assessed for quality in a 1% agarose gel and quantified using a Synergy For the DNA finger printing, we used 434 stem samples collected from the 217 households and genotyped these using the cassava SNPY-CHIP as described in Peña-Venegas et al (2014). Duplicate accessions were determined by pairwise multilocus matching among all 434 samples, 70 CIAT high-land breeding lines, 85 GRU highland landraces, and 50 accessions randomly collected in Cauca based on morphological variation.…”