PJB-2017-603
HARNESSING NUTRITIONAL DIVERSITY INHERENT IN SPHENOSTYLIS STENOCARPA (EX. A. RICH.) HARMS. ACCESSIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION
NNAMANI, C. V
Abstract
Neglected and underutilized plant genetic resources constitute opportunity for diversification of food and environmental services in most communities in developing countries. They can provide, in some cases, higher nutrient contents than globally accepted staples commonly consumed. With climate uncertainty, the desire and challenge for sustainably food production, there is an urgent need to promote crop diversification. Benefits are also likely to come from the greater resilience to environmental stress and the lower resource demand associated with growing these neglected crops. This study aims at quantifying the nutritional variations in 34 accessions of Sphenostylis stenocarpa sourced from farmers, marketers and consumers. The accessions were evaluated for variability in their nutritional components based on proximate compositions and vitamin values using multidimensional analysis (MDA), principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. Highly significant differences were observed between the accessions in most of the compositional traits measured. The MDA analysis showed that accessions AB2, AB4, AB3, EB5, AB1 and EB6 ranked 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th, respectively. The PCA revealed that PC 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 loaded the most significant variables which contributed more in discriminating the accessions. Dendogram highlighted three distinct clads. Group I clades 19 accessions, group II, 3 accessions and group III clustered 12 accessions. All together MDA, principal component (PCA) and cluster analysis revealed the genetic variability among these accessions and thus served as appropriate tools for selection of quality accession for plant resource improvement and conservation.
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