Breeding potential of acrid elephant foot yam genotypes for yield and nutritional quality using multivariate analysis

Abstract

Acrid genotypes (var. sylvestris) of elephant foot yam [Amorphophallus paeoniifolius (Dennst.) Nicolson syn. A. campanulatus (Roxb.) BL. Ex Dence] are consumed in spite of non-acrid (var. hortensis) types being available, due to their specific flavor, color and taste. Acrid genotypes need to be evaluated for yield and nutrition related characters for selection of desirable food and nutrition content. Genotypes variability was evaluated for yield related traits. Pseudo-stem diameter, number of leaflets, corm volume and corm yield per plant had high genotypic coefficient of variation, heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean indicating selection would bring improvement in these traits. The top priority should be given to selection based on corm volume, canopy spread and corm width for yield improvement and could be considered while formulating selection indices in the improvement of elephant foot yam. Principal components of most variable traits, pseudo-stem diameter, canopy spread, number of leaflets, corm length, corm width, corm volume and corm yield per plant had eigen values >1 and accounting for 92.82 % of total variation among eleven genotypes. The cophenetic correlation coefficient of dendrogram (0.733) was very close to 1, indicating clustering was good. Based on average performance, genotypes ACC-85 and ACC-136 were found promising for corm yield and carbohydrate, potassium, iron, and zinc contents. The outcome of the study will be helpful for breeders in selection of such genotypes for development of nutritionally rich and high yielding varieties.