Genetic Variability and Interrelationships of Grain, Cooking, and Nutritional Quality Traits in Cowpea: Implications for Cowpea Improvement

Michael M. Chipeta (), Esnart Yohane, John Kafwambira and Jessica Kampanje-Phiri
Additional contact information
Michael M. Chipeta: Department of Crops and Soil Sciences, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, P.O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi
Esnart Yohane: Department of Agricultural Research Services, Chitedze Research Station, P.O. Box 128, Lilongwe, Malawi
John Kafwambira: Department of Crops and Soil Sciences, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, P.O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi
Jessica Kampanje-Phiri: Department of Human Ecology, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, P.O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-15

Abstract: Grain quality, cooking quality, and nutritional quality traits are some of the major attributes that enhance the uptake and utilization of improved cowpea varieties. Therefore, there is a need for a better understanding of the genetic variation and inter-relationships among these quality traits in cowpeas to integrate them into cowpea breeding programs. This study was conducted to determine genetic variability among 306 cowpea genotypes for grain quality, cooking quality, and nutritional quality traits and to understand the interrelationships among these traits for exploitation in breeding programs. The results showed highly significant differences ( p < 0.001) among genotypes for grain quality, cooking quality, and nutritional quality traits. The mean performance for these quality traits was also very variable. These results suggest that genetic variability exists in the cowpea genotypes studied, which can be exploited in breeding programs aimed at developing high-performing varieties for the said traits. Significant ( p < 0.001) positive correlations were detected for protein content with iron and zinc. On the other hand, nutritional quality traits did not exhibit any association with grain quality or cooking quality traits. Cooking quality traits were also shown to be significantly and positively correlated with grain quality traits. This study has identified several genotypes with desirable quality-related traits that could be used in crossing programs to generate improved varieties with consumer-preferred traits to improve the food, income, and nutritional status of many smallholder farmers that largely depend on cowpeas.

Keywords: consumer-preferred traits; cowpea; genetic variability; interrelationships; quality traits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/4/633/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/4/633/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:4:p:633-:d:1379248

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().