Agromorphological Purification of Farmer’s Seeds and Diversity of Corchorus olitorius Linn.

Abstract

Corchorus olitorius is commonly cultivated by household women for livelihood in Togo. No database has been found for gene bank tractability in Togo. This study aims to contribute to a better knowledge of diversity in C. olitorius from Togo, thereby developing a database information on this neglected crop. Twenty-seven accessions were collected in the 5 ecological regions in Togo, on which experiments were conducted. First experiment was an accession purification in order to access pure genotypes, second experiment was an Agro-morphological characterization to give an identity to each genotype. RCBD design was considered with 3 replications and repeated in two ecological zones in Togo. The results showed accessions A24, A25 and A26 to be of pure source, other accessions were a mixed of genotypes. Qualitative data identified polymorphic characters among the genotypes, leaf margin was serrate (92.31%) or dentate (7.69%), with a Lanceolate or Ovate leaf shape, and a glossy (53.85%) and matte leaf surface (46.15%). Leaf colour were green (53.85%), dark green (38.46%), and light green (7.69%)); branching habits were either predominantly primary (92.31%) or predominantly secondary (7.69%). Five main clusters were structured from quantitative characters. Cluster II comprises only genotype1, which genetic distance is significantly isolated from other genotypes, this could be a good candidate for genetic improvement with genotypes from other clusters. The abstract should be concise and informative.