Agro‐Morphological Variability Among Sweetpotato [ <i>Ipomoea batatas</i> (L.) Lam] Clones Collected From Niger and Nigeria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Sweetpotato is gaining momentum in Niger and Nigeria due to its contribution to food and nutritional security. The aim of this study was to assess the variability among the sweetpotato clones collected from Niger and Nigeria. Hundred sweetpotato clones were evaluated during the rainy season 2020–2021 using alpha lattice design. Data were collected on quantitative and qualitative traits and analysed using R software. The Analysis of variance exhibited a highly significant difference ( p &lt; 0.001) among clones for all traits, indicating high variability among clones. The study revealed high values of genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation in all the traits except for mature leaf size and storage root length, which indicated the presence of wide gene variability. High heritability along with a high percentage of genetic advances suggests possible and rapid improvement of these traits. The results of factorial analysis of mixed data grouped the hundred clones into three main clusters, C1, C2 and C3 with 49, 14 and 37 clones, respectively. Clones EBO/SP8, JOHN and TIS‐81‐64 × 1 had the highest storage root yield, whereas clones Nwa Oyorima, PYT/25/19 and PYT/4/19 × 1 had the best in upper biomass yield; therefore, these clones could be further used as potential sources to improve these traits.