ASSESSING THE PERFORMANCE OF COWPEA (Vigna unguiculata [L.] Walp.) VARIETIES IN Striga INFESTED FIELDS IN THE SEMI-ARID REGION OF NIGERIA
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Date
2011-09-13
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University of Maiduguri
Abstract
A field trial was conducted in two locations, at the Teaching and Research farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri (1 1°50"N, 13° |0'E) and Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Technology Transfer Station at Gashua (12°56'N, 11°30'E) which are situated in the semi-arid region of Nigeria. The trials were conducted during the 2004 rainy season in order to assess the response of cowpea varieties to Striga gesnerioides infestation. The experiment consisted of 12 cowpea varieties as treatments viz: IT97K-568-18, IT98K-692, 1T97K-819-118, 1797K-205-8, ITOOK-1060, 1797K-499-35, 1797K-497-2, 1798K-205-10, IT97K-499-38, B-301, Borno brown and Dan' arbain. These treatments were laid in randomised complete block design (RCBD) and replicated 4 times. The data collected include, Striga shoot count, days to 50% flowering, number of pods/plant, number of seeds per pod and grain yield of cowpea. Results show that variettes 7797K-568-18 and IT00-1060 were tolerant to Striga gesnerioides as they supported significant higher Striga population and still produced significantly high grain yield.
Variety 1T97K-819-118 was found to be resistant to Striga as it supported low Striga shoots and gave significantly high yield as well. The rest of the cowpea varieties gave low yields. The local variety Dan arbain was also considered tolerant as it supported significant high Striga population and gave high grain yields that were comparable to the maximum. Both the tolerant varieties, 1797K-568-18 and ITO0-1060 produced significantly higher mumber of pods/plant and number of seeds/pod and resulted in significantly higher grain yields which were comparable to the resistant variety, 1797K-819-118 in both locations and the combined mean. Cowpea grain yield was negatively correlated with days to 50% fowering but positively correlated with Striga infestation at 8, 10 and 12 WAS. Variety 1T97K-8/9-118 was found to combine the ability to resist Striga infestation with the production of higher grain yield comparable to the maximum. It could be recommended to farmers in the semi-arid zone of Nigeria. The tolerant varieties should be improved upon through further breeding to be able to resist Striga while maintaining their potential for higher yields.
Key words: Striga gesnerioides, copea varieties, resistance, tolerance, Nigeria.
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