Abstract:
Vitamin A deficiency related diseases are major problem in Sub-Sahara Africa. Yellow flesh cassava (YFC) mutants were developed to combat these challenges but there is a need to evaluate for yield related traits, safety, perceptions and preferences before release. The survey showed that farmers had heard of YFC and 72 % are willing to cultivate and consumed it as fufu or gari. The yield and yield related traits evaluation under RCBD with 10 treatments in 2018/2019 cropping season indicated that Total Carotenoids (TC) ranged from 1.77-10.38 μg/g and top four genotypes were 6A (10.38), 12B (10.10), 14B (9.83) and 11A (9.57) while IITA control and 6F checks had 7.97 and 1.77 μg/g, respectively. The Dry Matter and Fresh Root Yield ranged from 15.53-38.12% and 21.53-55.97 t ha-1, respectively. The Cyanogenic Potential range (25.9-37.3 mgHN/kg) of all genotypes was lower than innocuous value of 50mgHCN/kg and therefore safe for consumption. The eight YFC genotypes with one white and one yellow flesh checks planted in three environments in 2019/2020 growing season under RCBD, showed that Asuansi (15.87 %), Wamaso (14.71 %) and UCC (14.51 %) location had similar starch yields. There were substantial differences (p<0.05) for cassava root yield across locations with Wamaso leading with 33.69 t ha-1 and UCC (33.23 t ha-1) significantly higher than Asuansi (28.03 t ha-1). The dry matter ranged from 21.67 - 43.33 % for genotypes 14B and 6F respectively. Also, significant differences among all the genotypes (p<0.05) for total carotenoid retention when YFC was processed into gari were observed. All genotypes had total carotenoid retention between 98.23±12.21 % - 59.35±7.09 and above 50 % of initial level. The yellow flesh genotypes 12B, 11B, 5B and 9A were the top four performers recommended for release.
