Nutritional Qualities Evaluation of Ten Accessions of Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) Infected by Cercospora Leaf Spot Disease

Abstract

Background and Objective: Despite the importance of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) in Nigeria, its production in commercial quantity is constrained majorly by fungal diseases, especially Cercospora Leaf Spot (CLS). Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate the nutritional qualities of ten cowpea accessions infected by CLS planted in the screen house Materials and Methods: The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design with three replications. Data collected were on stomatal conductance, leaf chlorophyll content, disease evaluation and proximate analysis. The data collected were subjected to mixed model Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Means of significant treatments were separated using Fisher Protected Least Significant Difference (LSD) at p<0.05. Results: The effect of CLS on stomatal conductance, leaf chlorophyll content, disease evaluation and proximate analysis of the cowpea accessions differed significantly with TVU-9182 having the highest value of ash, crude fibre, moisture and fat at 3.92, 3.13, 15.67 and 4.48%, respectively with the value of carbohydrate at 51.99%. The TVU-9175 had the lowest value of ash, protein, moisture, crude fibre and fat at 2.17, 16.55, 8.67, 1.73 and 2.48%, respectively with the highest value of carbohydrate at 68.41%. The ten accessions were significantly susceptible (p<0.5) to CLS with high susceptibility at 10 Weeks After Planting (WAP). Conclusion: The results showed that TVU-9174 and TVU-9182 had better nutritional qualities after CLS infection than the other infected cowpea accessions. Hence, TVU-9174 and TVU-9182 could be used as breeding materials based on the nutritional contents after CLS infection.