Agronomic Variability of the Sweet Potato Collection (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) from Côte d'Ivoire

The characterization of genetic resources is essential for improvement and conservation programs. The objective of this study was to study the morphological and agronomic variability of the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) collection of the Centre National de Recherche Agronomique (CNRA) of Cote d'Ivoire. The work was carried out with 88 accessions on the basis of 12 agronomic characters according to a Fisher design with two replicates. The correlations observed showed the degree of linkage between the traits. Principal component analysis revealed significant variability between individuals in the four groups formed (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4). The most discriminating characters of sweet potato accessions were percentage of productive plants (PPPR), total number of storage roots (SRNU), total storage root weight (SRNU), storage root yield (SRYD), mosaic incidence (VIRD), weevil incidence (SRWE), nematode incidence (SRNE) and rodent incidence (SRRO). The hierarchical cluster analysis resulted in the formation of five groups of accessions independently of geographical origin. Discriminant factor analysis revealed that the grouping of accessions is a function of yield characteristics and disease and pest incidence.