Faba bean (<em>Vicia Faba </em>L.) Germplasm Collection and its Diversity in Oman

Abstract

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is one of the popular pulse crops grown for traditional consumption, not only in Oman but also in Arabian Peninsula and other countries. In Oman, the famers living in and around high altitude mountain areas mostly grow it. This paper highlights features of variation in seed color and diversity in seed traits found in collected accessions from the joint collecting missions of 2008-2010 between the staff of College of Agriculture, Sultan Qaboos University and the Ministry of Agriculture &amp;amp; Fisheries throughout all the governorates of the Sultanate of Oman. 41 seed samples/accessions were collected from 38 sites. Of these, the highest number of accessions was collected from Batinah South governorate (38) represented mostly by the mountains of Rustaq, followed by the mountains of Interior/Al-Dakhliyah (8), and Dhahira &amp;amp; Buraimi (4). Only one accession was collected from mountains of the Eastern/ Al-Sharqiyah governorates. The seed accessions were found diverse with respect to all seed characters studied, i.e. seed length (cm) and width (cm) and 1000-seed weight (g) besides seed color. The faba bean accessions were classified into 9 genetically diverse clusters based on the Principal Component Analysis, which indicated that the contribution of seed width and 100-seed weight to the total variation existing in indigenous germplasm collected from all the governorates of Oman. It was found from the critical analysis of seed colors that 38 accessions were homogenous (pure) with one color and three were heterogeneous with combinations of colors.

Genetic Variability of Tunisian Faba Beans (Vicia faba L.) Based on Seeds’ Morphophysical Properties as Assessed by Statistical Analysis

“…ose results are quite similar to those observed in previous studies that dealt with local either small or large Vicia faba germplasm collections. Indeed, seeds length varied between 11.80 and 15 mm; width ranged between 7.5 and 10 mm in an indigenous Omani faba bean collection [9]. e study carried out on Turkish faba bean varieties showed bigger values of length, width, and thickness, ranging respectively from 18 to 22 mm, 13 to 16 mm, and 13 to 16 mm [30].…”

“…Moreover, diversity study through the analysis of the physical properties of seeds is a preliminary step for faba bean germplasm characterization and improvement. Several attempts to analyze the morphological diversity and to characterize the physical properties of faba bean seeds have been realized, whether concerning varieties, accessions, cultivars, line, or even mutants [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. However, no one paid great attention to the Tunisian germplasm that is rich in autochthonous accessions scattered among farmers.…”