Provenance Variation For Morphological Traits And Oil Content In Some Jatropha Curcas L.

📄 Project Abstract

Twenty one provenances of Jatropha curcas L. collected from seven states of the Northwestern Nigeria and established in a provenance trial at the Institute for Agricultural Research farm, Samaru, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria were evaluated using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Rank Summation Index (RSI) and Genetic Distance (GD) to analyze their pattern of variation, identify the major traits responsible for their variation and suggest appropriate breeding materials to improve the crop. Ten plants were randomly selected in each provenance and evaluated for nine morphological traits and oil content. All the provenances showed highly significant variations except main stem height, which was significant at 0.05 level of probability. Mean performance showed significant differences for all traits with each trait exhibiting a considerable range. Higher genotypic than phenotypic variances were observed for plant height, number of branches on collar, number of lateral branches, ...