Diversity of bush yam (Dioscorea Praehensilis) in Ghana and the prospects of rapid multiplication through yam minisett technique

Abstract

Bush Yam (Dioscorea praehensilis), a wild type of yam species, is an important food crop in Ghana. It thrives well under artificial secondary forest hence it is able to grow under cocoa plantations in the forest zones. It is suspected that there is great diversity in the gene pool of bush yam but there is limited information on the existing germplasm. This project was undertaken to make a collection of the yam germplasm, characterize and select superior lines for further improvement. A total of ninety accessions were collected from the major production communities in Ghana and they were established in the field at two locations for morphological characterization and assessment for their culinary values. Prospects of planting material production through the minisett technique was assessed. Diversityof both qualitative and quantitative traits were observed. Flowering ability of bush yam were male, female, absent of flowers and haemaphrodite flowers. The leaf shape were cordate long and broad and saggitate long. Purplish green, pale green and dark green leaf colours were also observed. Cluster analysis grouped the accessions into 4 clusters. Sensory analysis suggested that the accessions vary in some sensory attributes. Fracturability was observed not to influence the choice of accession by consumers. Accessions varies in their ability to perform under the minisett technique. Performance of the accessions were better in the mulch and top soil media than in sawdust. The minisett performance of accession were not significantly different from each other except with DJA-067 which performed poorly in all data collected.