Collection and morphological characterization of cassava landraces in Uganda

On farm conservation by traditional farmers plays a major role in retaining genetic diversity of any crop. Collecting germplasm that had evolved over time on farmers’ fields is an important strategy to prevent genetic losses and also to make accessible the genetic resource to breeders and the research community. The aim of this study was to collect cassava landraces from farmers’ fields in Eastern, Northern, western, central and southern Uganda and to characterize the collected germplasm using morphological descriptors for ex situ conservation. 200 households were visited and 350 farmer varieties were collected. Morphological data were collected from mature cassava varieties that had been cultivated in the area for the last 20 years and more. During collections, farmers were interviewed using a tool that had been developed to document farmer’s knowledge on cassava in-situ conservation. 3 root and 11 vegetative descriptors were used for morphological characterization. Data were analyzed based on multivariate analysis and clustering was done with UPGMA method. The results obtained indicated that the collected germplasm fall in 6 morphological groups. No clustering was observed based on agro-ecological zones.