Morpho-agronomic Characterization and Cluster Analysis of Sweet potato Accessions in CAR

Abstract

The study was conducted to characterize the morphology and determine the cluster analysis and yield of 14 sweet potato accessions collected in CAR. Based on frequency count, 80-100% of the sweet potato accessions showed the predominant character for twining, vine internode length and diameter and petiole length. Less than 30% of the sweet potato accessions showed the predominant character for predominant flesh color which may indicate relatively high variation. Fifty percent of the sweet potato accessions expressed the predominant character of plant type, ground cover, immature leaf color, storage root surface defects, storage root stem color and predominant skin color of the sweet potato accessions. There were three clusters formed based on quantitative characters with cluster 2 being the largest. In addition, accessions in cluster 3 have the heaviest marketable and total yield while cluster 1 and cluster 2 had the heaviest herbage yield. In terms of the number of marketable roots, Virak significantly produced the heaviest and most numerous roots.